The St. bartholomew massacre

THE NAME FRANCE IS DERIVED FROM THE FRANKISH WORD FRANK (GER. FREI) WHICH MEANS FREE AS IN: "THEREFORE IF THE SON MAKES YOU FREE, YOU SHALL BE FREE INDEED (ST. JOHN 7:36).

Here is an English language quote based on a true history of France entitled Franco-Gallia by a Massacre survivor named François Hotman:

Gaul returned to a tradition of more freedom with the arrival of the Franks. They were originally a Germanic tribe living on the coasts of northern Europe, between the Rhine and the Elbe. Their very name reflects their love of freedom, as frank means "free" in German. The Franks were originally a fairly small band, but other Germanic peoples entering Gaul adopted their name out of admiration for their leading role in overthrowing the tyranny of the Romans. (Kingdon, Myths About the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, p. 143).

The old Frankish language was replaced by the French language which is a Romance language derived from Latin with only a few Frankish words remaining to remind the French of the liberty-loving Franks.

The French Christians were given the derogatory name "Huguenot" by the Jesuits. Unlike the word "Protestant," which came from the corrupt Latin Vulgate Version, the origin of that word is still obscure.

Satan is the same in every country, so Empress Tzu Hsi engineered a Chinese St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1900.

On August 15, 1534, Ignatius Loyola and 6 of his companions founded the Jesuit order on a hilltop outside Paris. The deadly 6 founders were: Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla, Peter Faber, and Simão Rodrigues. Francis Borgia, the grandson of Pope Alexander VI, and the éminence grise behind the new order–was not present at that time. 

On August 15, 1534, the Jesuit order was founded on a hilltop outside Paris called Montmartre. It was originally a Druid shrine where human sacrifices were made to Esus.

A basilica to the Sacred Heart of Jesus now dominates Montmartre.

The original French name of the Jesuits was la Sociéte des Pères du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus.

In 1540, Pope Paul III officially recognized the "new" Militia of Zeus and Minerva....In reality, the Jesuits were just warmed-over or incognito Franciscans....They were the shock troops or special forces of the Counter-Reformation. They were excused from chanting the Psalms; they did not have to wear the round tonsure, they were allowed to wear civilian clothes, and their general was elected for life. 

The planning for the Massacre began immediately after the founding of the Jesuits. The glorious Reformation, begun in Germany on October 31, 1517, had spread to France–and was joyfully received. A great change had come over the people as industry and learning began to flourish, and so rapidly did the Truth spread that over a third of the French population of 20,000,000 embraced the Reformed Christian Faith.

True Christianity was also making progress at the highest echelon of French society. In 1521, Anne Boleyn—the future queen of England—returned from a 5-year-stay at the French Court . . . burning with zeal to rescue her nation from Papal darkness. 

Walsingham "hid" in the British embassy and escaped the Massacre. He was not even FIRED for incompetence . . . but was promoted to become the queen's Secretary of State in 1573....That was an incredible failure of intelligence for the legendary British Secret Service!!

The Massacre happened at a time of great friendship and ecumenical goodwill between the French Christians and the Vatican. The French Christians were derisively called "Huguenots" by the Latin

Alarmingly for the Jesuits, the French Christians ignored the Bull of Borgia granting the entire New World to Spain. In 1562, Jean Ribault led a colonizing expedition to South Carolina . . . which was brutally wiped out by the Spanish. 

Catherine married Henry II of France in 1533. For the first 10 years of their marriage she produced no children. In desperation, she entered into a pact with Lucifer himself, and eventually produced 10 "children." One of her daughters, Elizabeth, married Philip II of Spain. 

Charles was the eldest son of King Francis II (1544–1560), who suffered an untimely death in a jousting tournament. Charles was only 10-years-old at that time, so his mother Catherine became Regent, and de-facto ruler of the country. Unlike England, French Salic law prohibited females from inheriting the throne, otherwise Catherine would have joined Elizabeth of England and Mary Queen of Scots as an independent sovereign.

The lure to get the admiral to Paris was the wedding of King Henry III of Navarre to Marguerite de Valois. Marguerite was the daughter of King Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.

Admiral Coligny was without doubt the most famous man in France, and a leader in the French effort to plant the New Israel in the New World. The 1562 colony that was founded by Jean Ribault in South Carolina was wiped out by the Spanish Inquisition. 

On the morning of Friday, August 22, Admiral Coligny was walking back from the Louvre after a meeting with King Charles. The admiral was near home when suddenly he bent down to tie his shoelace. At that moment a shot rang out, wounding . . . but not killing the admiral:

On the morning of Friday, 22 August, the government recess for the marriage celebrations being now over, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny left his lodgings on the rue de Béthizy–today No. 144 rue de Rivoli–for a council meeting that was to start at nine o'clock. He had wished to press for French military intervention in Flanders, but to his frustration he found Anjou presiding over the meeting as the King had risen late. Anjou left the meeting early and when matters had been concluded the Admiral came across the King on his way with Téligny and the Duke of Guise to play a game of tennis. Charles begged Coligny to join him for a game but the Admiral refused. They parted at around eleven o'clock and Coligny left the Louvre for his short walk home, reading a document while he did so. As he approached the window at which Maurevert was hiding a binding on one of his shoes came loose and he bent down to fix it. Just as he did so, a shot rang out. The bullet broke his left arm and almost tore the index finger off his right hand. Had he not bent over at the critical moment he would have been mortally wounded. (Frieda, Catherine de Medici, p. 259).

 Charles de Louviers, seignor de Maurevert, lay in wait for days to kill Admiral Coligny . . . but in the end his attempt ended in failure. 

Catherine didn't care if her son was killed in the "assassination" attempt because she was the real ruler of France. This false flag operation was similar to the Gunpowder Plot in England....Our Great JEHOVAH brought their wicked council to nothing:

JEHOVAH brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect
(Psalm 33:10).

In preparation for the Massacre, friendly diplomatic relations also began between long-time rivals England and France. The Treaty of Blois was signed on April 19, 1572, between Queen Elizabeth and Catherine de' Medici. Based on the terms of the treaty, France and England relinquished their historic rivalry and established an alliance against Spain:

In June, the Queen Mother sent to London, as ambassador extraordinary, the Duke of Montmorency, with powers to ratify the Treaty of Blois and formally offer Alencon as a husband for the Queen. Elizabeth was a gracious hostess, entertaining the embassy lavishly and investing the Duke with the Order of the Garter, but she was noncommittal about the marriage proposal, citing her reservations about Alencon's age and appearance. When Montmorency left, she promised that she would consider the matter and give King Charles her answer within a month. She then told Burghley to instruct Walshingham to submit a full report. (Weir, The Life of Queen Elizabeth I, p. 285).

Sir "Francis" Walshingham was the queen's "spymaster" and eyes and ears throughout Europe.

To distinguish between the murderers and the French Christians, a white cross was sown on their hats.

It is true that England and France were always bitter enemies . . . but that was Papal England and Papal France!!           

 References

Algrant, Christine Pevitt. Madame de Pompadour, Mistress of France. Grove Press, New York. 2002.

Bernier, Olivier. Louis the Beloved. The Life of Louis XV. Doubleday & Co., Garden City, New York, 1984.

Crowdy, Terry. The Enemy Within: A History of Spies, Spymasters and Espionage. Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2006.

Erickson, Carolly, The First Elizabeth. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1983.

Frieda, Leonie. Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2003.

Hotman, François. Franco-Gallia: or, an Account of the Ancient Free State of France. Tim. Goodwin, London, 1711.

Haynes, Alan. Walshingham: Elizabethan Spymaster and Statesman. Sutton Publishing, Gloustershire, UK, 2007.

Kingdon, Robert M. Myth's About the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MASS, 1988.

Lever, Evelyne. Madame de Pompadour. A Life. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2000.

Nicolini, G.B. History of the Jesuits. George Bell & Sons, London & New York, 1893.

Noguerès, Henry. The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1959.

Smith, H.C. The Bonapartes. The History of a Dynasty. Hambledon & London, London & New York, 2000.

Somerset, Anne, Elizabeth I. St. Martin's Griffin, New York, 1991.

Weir, Alison. The Life of Queen Elizabeth I. Ballantine Books, New York, 1998.

         Reformation

The horrible St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

August 24, 1572, was the date of the infamous Jesuit engineered St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. On that day, over 400 years ago, began one of the most horrifying holocausts in history.

The Massacre began with the brutal murder of Admiral Coligny . . . in his bedroom.

Henry, Duke of Guise (1550–1588).

At 2 A.M., on the morning of August 24, Henry, duke of Guise, led about 300 soldiers to the home of Admiral Coligny. The murders entered his house by force and found the admiral by his bedside praying. The admiral was brutally stabbed to death and his body thrown out the window.

The brutal murder of Admiral Coligny.

When Catherine de Medici heard news of his death, she ordered the big bell of St. Germain L'Auxerrous to be rung. That was the agreed on signal for the Massacre to begin. Soon other church bells throughout the city began to ring and the deadly holocaust commenced.

The Church of Saint-Germain L'Auxerrois.

The signal for the Massacre to begin was the ringing of the bell of Saint-Germain L'Auxerrois. The Cardinal de Lorraine was in Rome at that time, but thousands of Certificates of Indulgences (certificat d'indulgence), were preprinted with his signature. The priests and friars used these licenses to kill to encourage the murderers and absolve them in advance!!

The Cardinal de Lorraine (1524–1574).

If the murderers happened to be killed in the carnage, the priests and friars assured them that their Certificates would cause the doors of Paradise to open wide for them.

Catherine de' Medici rejoiced over the dead bodies of the French Christians.

The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre was one of the greatest crimes in the history of the world. Total victims numbered over 100,000 Christians throughout France. When confronted with the choice of the mass or death, very few choose the mass.

The Catholics were acting like Muslims during the Massacre!

When dawn broke on the morning of August 24, such a sight of carnage had never been seen in the entire history of the world. Paris was a literal Dante's Inferno slaughterhouse....Men, women, and children were stripped naked and their bodies horribly mutilated.

Catherine de' Medici came out to gloat over and inspect the bodies of the slain. She wondered if the bodies of the Christians were normal because they could not be seduced by her courtesans.

After the brutal murder of Admiral Coligny, his head was cut off, and taken to the royal palace as a trophy for the king and queen mother. It was later embalmed and sent to Rome as a "present" for Pope Gregory XIII.

King Philip II (1527-1598). King from 1554 to 1598.

King Philip II of Spain financed the Massacre with New World gold and silver. When news of the Massacre reached him, he "laughed for the first time on record." Jesuit general Francis Borgia was the overall coordinator of the Massacre.

Francis Borgia (1510–1572). Jesuit general from 1565 to 1572.

Beginning in Paris, the Massacre spread rapidly to all the cities, towns, and villages....The streets were awash with blood and the rivers were filled with dead bodies. Men, women, and children were all consumed by the murderous conflagration. Total victims exceeded 100,000. Not until the atomic bombing of Hiroshima were so many people killed in so short a time.

Queen Elizabeth heard the news on September 3:

By 22 August, the Queen had arrived at Kenilworth to be entertained by Leicester, who had arranged all kinds of 'princely sports.' But on 3 September, while she was out hunting one day, a messenger arrived with a dispatch from Walsingham in Paris that caused her to burst into tears, cancel all further entertainments and send de la Mole back to France. A Spanish agent in London informed Alva that she had 'sent all her musicians and minstrels home, and there are no more of the dances, farces and entertainments with which they have been amusing themselves lately, as they have some less agreeable things to think about.' (Weir, The Life of Queen Elizabeth I, p. 287).

Queen Elizabeth put on a good act of "grieving," while Mary Queen of Scots stayed up all night celebrating. Pope Gregory XIII was beside himself with joy.

Pope Gregory XIII (1502–1585). Pope from1572 to 1585.

Pope Gregory XIII was delirious with joy when he heard of the Massacre. The Gregorian calendar—now universally used—is named after him!

The Massacre Medal of Pope Gregory XIII.

 

After the Massacre, Pope Gregory celebrated a Te Deum mass. Italian artist Giorgio Vasari painted 3 frescoes which still hang in the Sala Regia Palace next to the Cistine Chapel. A commemorate medal was struck with Gregory's portrait and on the obverse a chastising angel, sword in hand, and the legend UGONOTTORUM STRAGES ("Massacre of the Huguenots"). Pope Gregory designated September 11 as a joint holiday (Feast of the unholy Rosary) to celebrate the Battle of Lepanto and the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre!!

The Massacre was a staggering blow to France from which it never fully recovered. Most of the Christians were artisans and belonged to the middle class. Many of them found a refuge in Germany, Switzerland, England, and Ireland and those countries benefited greatly by their industry and maritime skills.        

 

References

Algrant, Christine Pevitt. Madame de Pompadour, Mistress of France. Grove Press, New York. 2002.

Bernier, Olivier. Louis the Beloved. The Life of Louis XV. Doubleday & Co., Garden City, New York, 1984.

Crowdy, Terry. The Enemy Within: A History of Spies, Spymasters and Espionage. Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2006.

Erickson, Carolly, The First Elizabeth. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1983.

Frieda, Leonie. Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2003.

Hotman, François. Franco-Gallia: or, an Account of the Ancient Free State of France. Tim. Goodwin, London, 1711.

Haynes, Alan. Walshingham: Elizabethan Spymaster and Statesman. Sutton Publishing, Gloustershire, UK, 2007.

Kingdon, Robert M. Myth's About the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MASS, 1988.

Lever, Evelyne. Madame de Pompadour. A Life. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2000.

Nicolini, G.B. History of the Jesuits. George Bell & Sons, London & New York, 1893.

Noguerès, Henry. The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1959.

Smith, H.C. The Bonapartes. The History of a Dynasty. Hambledon & London, London & New York, 2000.

Somerset, Anne, Elizabeth I. St. Martin's Griffin, New York, 1991.

Weir, Alison. The Life of Queen Elizabeth I. Ballantine Books, New York, 1998.

 

 Reformation

The wearing out of the saints of the Most High by the papal system

In Daniel we read that one of the characteristics of the Antichrist is that it would wear out the saints of the Most High:

And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws (Daniel 7:25).

The Papacy has a long history of "wearing out" the saints of the Most High. Below is a timeline of the generally aggressive history of the Roman Catholic Church, but the most tragic one that concerns the Word of God is the persecution during the Middle Ages of anyone daring to oppose the Church. The Bible predicts that the saints of the Most High would be persecuted for 1260 years.

Historian J. A. Wylie said this:

It is idle in Rome to say, "I gave you the Bible, and therefore you must believe in me before you can believe in it." The facts...conclusively dispose of this claim. Rome did not give us the Bible—she did all in her power to keep it form us; she retained it under the seal of a dead language; and when others broke that seal, and threw open its pages to all, she stood over the book, and unsheathing her fiery sword, would permit none to read the message of life, save at the peril of eternal anathema" (emphasis in original).ⁱ

During these years of oppression in which the masses were kept in ignorance and the priest held sway over every aspect of life, here and there arose individuals willing to shine a light into the darkness. Dave Hunt tells us that because they rejected transubstantiation, "Christians were burned at the stake by Roman Catholics by the hundreds of thousands."ⁱⁱ

In 1940, French statesman Baron DePonnat stated, “Roman Catholicism was born in blood, has wallowed in blood, and has quenched its thirst in blood, and it is in letters of blood that its true history is written.” Indeed, the history of papal Rome has been one of brutal torture, slaughter, and mass murder. 

A Bloody Past

1096 Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter half the Jews in Worms, Germany.

1098 Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter almost all of the inhabitants of the city of Antioch.

1099 Roman Catholic crusaders massacre 70,000 Muslims and Jews when they capture Jerusalem.

1208 – 1226 The Albigensian Crusades in southern France. Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter approximately 20,000 citizens of Beziers, France, on July 22, 1209. Albigensian Christians and Catholics were slain. By the time the Roman Catholic armies finished their “crusade,” almost the entire population of southern France (mostly Albigensian Christians) has been exterminated. During the six centuries of papal Inquisition that began in the 13th century, up to 50 million people were killed.

1236 Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter Jews in the Anjou and Poitou regions of western France. The Catholic crusaders trample to death under their horses 3000 Jews who refuse baptism.

1243 Roman Catholic mobs burn alive all the Jews in Berlitz, Germany (near Berlin).

1298 Roman Catholic mobs burn alive all Jews in Rottingen, Germany.

April 26, 1349 Roman Catholic mobs burn to death all Jews in Germersheim, Germany.

1348 – 1349 The Jews are blamed for the bubonic plague. Author Dave Hunt tells us, “Accused of causing the ‘Black Death’ Jews were rounded up [by Roman Catholic mobs] and hanged, burned, and drowned by the thousands in revenge.”

1389 Roman Catholic mobs murder 3000 Jews in Prague when they refuse to be baptized.

1481 – 1483 At the direction of the Roman Catholic inquisitors, authorities burn at the stake at least 2000 people during the first two years of the Spanish Inquisition.

1540 – 1570 Roman Catholic armies butcher at least 900,000 Waldensian Christians of all ages during this 30-year period.

1550 – 1560 Roman Catholic troops slaughter at least 250,000 Dutch Protestants via torture, hanging, and burning during this ten-year period.

1553 – 1558 Roman Catholic Queen Mary I of England (aka “bloody Mary”) attempts to bring England back under the yoke of papal tyranny. During her reign, approximately 200 men and woman are burned to death at the sake. Her victims include bishops, scholars, and other Protestant leaders.

1572 St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. French Roman Catholic soldiers begin killing Protestants in Paris on the night of August 24, 1572. The soldiers kill at least 10,000 Protestants during the first three days. At least 8000 more Protestants are killed as the slaughter spreads to the countryside.

1618 – 1648 The Thirty Years’ War. This bloody, religious war is planned, instigated, and orchestrated by the Roman Catholic Jesuit order and its agents in an attempt to exterminate all the Protestants in Europe. Many countries in central Europe lose up to half their population.

1641 –  1649 Eight years of Jesuit-instigated Roman Catholic butchery of Irish Protestants claims the lives of at least 100,000 Protestants.

1685  French Roman Catholic soldiers slaughter approximately 500,000 French Protestant Huguenots on the orders of Roman Catholic King Louis 14 of France.

Circa 1938 –  1945 Catholic dictators such as Adolf Hitler and Monsignor Tiso slaughter approximately six million Jews in Europe prior to and during World War 2.

1941 – 1945 The Roman Catholic Ustashi in the fascist state of Croatia butcher up to one million Serbian Orthodox Christians. Roman Catholic killer squads are often led by Franciscan priests, monks, and friars. This genocide is choreographed by two Jesuit prelates: Aloysius Stepinac and Ivan Saric.                  AD              

References:

i. J.A. Wylie, History of Protestantism Volume 1 (Virginia: Heartland Publications, 2002): 58.

ii. Dave Hunt, A Cup of Trembling (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 1995): 160.

The Bartholomew Massacre at Paris

On the 22d of August, 1572, commenced this diabolical act of sanguinary brutality. It was intended to destroy at one stroke the root of the protestant tree, which had only before partially suffered in its branches. The king of France had artfully proposed a marriage between his sister and the prince of Navarre, the captain and prince of the protestants. This imprudent marriage was publicly celebrated at Paris, August 18, by the cardinal of Bourbon, upon a high stage erected for the purpose. They dined in great pomp with the bishop, and supped with the king at Paris. Four days after this, the prince, as he was coming from the council, was shot in both arms; he then said to Maure, his deceased mother's minister,

"O my brother, I do now perceive that I am indeed beloved of my God, since for his most holy sake I am wounded."

Although the Vidam advised him to fly, yet he abode in Paris, and was soon after slain by Bemjus; who afterward declared he never saw a man meet death more valiantly than the admiral. The soldiers were appointed at a certain signal to burst out instantly to the slaughter in all parts of the city. When they had killed the admiral, they threw him out at a window into the street, where his head was cut off, and sent to the pope. The savage papists, still raging against him, cut off his arms and private members, and, after dragging him three days through the streets, hung him up by the heels without the city. After him they slew many great and honourable persons who were protestants; as count Rochfoucault, Telinius, the admiral's son-in-law, Antonius, Clarimontus, marquis of Ravely, Lewes Bussius, Bandineus, Pluvialius, Burneius, &c. &c. and falling upon the common people, they continued the slaughter for many days; in the three first, they slew of all ranks and conditions to the number of 10,000. The bodies were thrown into the rivers, and blood ran through the streets with a strong current, and the river appeared presently like a stream of blood. So furious was their hellish rage, that they slew all papists whom they suspected to be not very staunch to their diabolical religion. From Paris the destruction spread to all quarters of the realm.

At Orleans, a thousand were slain of men, women, and children, and 6000 at Rouen.

At Meldith, two hundred were put into prison, and brought out by units, and cruelly murdered.

At Lyons, eight hundred were massacred. Here children hanging about their parents, and parents affectionately embracing their children, were pleasant food for the swords and blood-thirsty minds of those who call themselves the catholic church. Here 300 were slain only in the bishop's house; and the impious monks would suffer none to be buried.

At Augustobona, on the people hearing of the massacre at Paris, they shut their gates that no protestants might escape, and searching diligently for every individual of the reformed church, imprisoned and then barbarously murdered them. The same cruelty they practised at Avaricum, at Troys, at Thoulouse, Rouen and many other places, running from city to city, towns, and villages, through the kingdom.

As a corroboration of this horrid carnage, the following interesting narrative, written by a sensible and learned Roman catholic, appears in this place, with peculiar propriety.

"The nuptials (says he) of the young king of Navarre with the French king's sister, was solemnized with pomp; and all the endearments, all the assurances of friendship, all the oaths sacred among men, were profusely lavished by Catharine, the queen-mother, and by the king; during which, the rest of the court thought of nothing but festivities, plays, and masquerades. At last, at twelve o'clock at night, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, the signal was given. Immediately all the houses of the protestants were forced open at once. Admiral Coligni, alarmed by the uproar jumped out of bed; when a company of assassins rushed in his chamber. They were headed by one Besme, who had been bred up as a domestic in the family of the Guises. This wretch thrust his sword into the admiral's breast, and also cut him in the face. Besme was a German, and being afterwards taken by the protestants, the Rochellers would have bought him, in order to hang and quarter him; but he was killed by one Bretanville. Henry, the young duke of Guise, who afterwards framed the catholic league, and was murdered at Blois, standing at the door till the horrid butchery should be completed, called aloud, 'Besme! is it done?' Immediately after which, the ruffians threw the body out of the window, and Coligni expired at Guise's feet.

Count de Teligny also fell a sacrifice. He had married, about ten months before, Coligni's daughter. His countenance was so engaging, that the ruffians, when they advanced in order to kill him, were struck with compassion; but others, more barbarous, rushing forward, murdered him.

In the meantime, all the friends of Coligni were assassinated throughout Paris; men, women, and children, were promiscuously slaughtered; every street was strewed with expiring bodies. Some priests, holding up a crucifix in one hand, and a dagger in the other, ran to the chiefs of the murderers, and strongly exhorted them to spare neither relations nor friends.

Tavannes, marshal of France, an ignorant, superstitious soldier, who joined the fury of religion to the rage of party, rode on horseback through the streets of Paris, crying to his men, 'Let blood! let blood! bleeding is as wholesome in August as in May.' In the memoirs of the life of this enthusiastic, written by his son, we are told, that the father, being on his death-bed, and making a general confession of his actions, the priest said to him, with surprise, 'What! no mention of St. Bartholomew's massacre?' to which Tavannes replied, 'I consider it as a meritorious action, that will wash away all my sins.' Such horrid sentiments can a false spirit of religion inspire!

The king's palace was one of the chief scenes of the butchery: the king of Navarre had his lodgings in the Louvre, and all his domestics were protestants. Many of these were killed in bed with their wives; others, running away naked, were pursued by the soldiers through the several rooms of the palace, even to the king's antichamber. The young wife of Henry of Navarre, awaked by the dreadful uproar, being afraid for her consort, and for her own life, seized with horror, and half dead, flew from her bed, in order to throw herself at the feet of the king her brother. But scarce had she opened her chamber-door, when some of her protestant domestics rushed in for refuge. The soldiers immediately followed, pursued them in sight of the princess, and killed one who had crept under her bed. Two others, being wounded with halberds, fell at the queen's feet, so that she was covered with blood.

Count de la Rochefoucault, a young nobleman, greatly in the king's favour for his comely air, his politeness, and a certain peculiar happiness in the turn of his conversation, had spent the evening till eleven o'clock with the monarch, in pleasant familiarity; and had given a loose, with the utmost mirth, to the sallies of his imagination. The monarch felt some remorse, and being touched with a kind of compassion, bid him, two or three times, not to go home, but lie in the Louvre. The count said, he must go to his wife; upon which the king pressed him no farther, but said, 'Let him go! I see God has decreed his death.' And in two hours after he was murdered.

Very few of the protestants escaped the fury of their enthusiastic persecutors. Among these was young La Force (afterwards the famous Marshal de la Force) a child about ten years of age, whose deliverance was exceedingly remarkable. His father, his elder brother, and himself were seized together by the Duke of Anjou's soldiers. These murderers flew at all three, and struck them at random, when they all fell, and lay one upon another. The youngest did not receive a single blow, but appearing as if he was dead, escaped the next day; and his life, thus wonderfully preserved, lasted four score and five years.

Many of the wretched victims fled to the water-side, and some swam over the Seine to the suburbs of St. Germaine. The king saw them from his window, which looked upon the river, and fired upon them with a carbine that had been loaded for that purpose by one of his pages; while the queen-mother, undisturbed and serene in the midst of slaughter, looking down from a balcony, encouraged the murderers and laughed at the dying groans of the slaughtered. This barbarous queen was fired with a restless ambition, and she perpetually shifted her party in order to satiate it.

Some days after this horrid transaction, the French court endeavoured to palliate it by forms of law. They pretended to justify the massacre by a calumny, and accused the admiral of a conspiracy, which no one believed. The parliament was commanded to proceed against the memory of Coligni; and his dead body was hung in chains on Montfaucon gallows. The king himself went to view this shocking spectacle; when one of his courtiers advising him to retire, and complaining of the stench of the corpse, he replied, 'A dead enemy smells well.' — The massacres on St. Bartholomew's day are painted in the royal saloon of the Vatican at Rome, with the following inscription: Pontifex Coligni necem probat, i. e. 'The pope approves of Coligni's death.'

The young king of Navarre was spared through policy, rather than from the pity of the queen-mother, she keeping him prisoner till the king's death, in order that he might be as a security and pledge for the submission of such protestants as might effect their escape.

This horrid butchery was not confined merely to the city of Paris. The like orders were issued from court to the governors of all the provinces in France; so that, in a week's time, about one hundred thousand protestants were cut to pieces in different parts of the kingdom! Two or three governors only refused to obey the king's orders. One of these, named Montmorrin, governor of Auvergne, wrote the king the following letter, which deserves to be transmitted to the latest posterity.

Sire — I have received an order, under your majesty's seal, to put to death all the protestants in my province. I have too much respect for your majesty, not to believe the letter a forgery; but if (which God forbid) the order should be genuine, I have too much respect for your majesty to obey it."

At Rome the horrid joy was so great, that they appointed a day of high festival, and a jubilee, with great indulgence to all who kept it and showed every expression of gladness they could devise! and the man who first carried the news received 1000 crowns of the
cardinalof Lorrain for his ungodly message. The king also commanded the day to be kept with every demonstration of joy, concluding now that the whole race of Huguenots was extinct.

Many who gave great sums of money for their ransom were immediately after slain; and several towns, which were under the king's promise of protection and safety, were cut off as soon as they delivered themselves up, on those promises, to his generals or captains.

At Bordeaux, at the instigation of a villanous monk, who used to urge the papists to slaughter in his sermons, 264 were cruelly murdered; some of them senators. Another of the same pious fraternity produced a similar slaughter at Agendicum, in Maine, where the populace at the holy inquisitors' satanical suggestion, ran upon the protestants, slew them, plundered their houses, and pulled down their church.

The duke of Guise, entering into Bloise, suffered his soldiers to fly upon the spoil, and slay or drown all the protestants they could find. In this they spared neither age nor sex; defiling the women, and then murdering them; from whence he went to Mere, and committed the same outrages for many days together. Here they found a minister named Cassebonius, and threw him into the river.

At Anjou, they slew Albiacus, a minister; and many women were defiled and murdered there; among whom were two sisters, abused before their father, whom the assassins bound to a wall to see them, and then slew them and him.

The president of Turin, after giving a large sum for his life, was cruelly beaten with clubs, stripped of his clothes, and hung feet upwards, with his head and breast in the river: before he was dead, they opened his belly, plucked out his entrails, and threw them into the river; and then carried his heart about the city upon a spear.

At Barre great cruelty was used, even to young children, whom they cut open, pulled out their entrails, which through very rage they knawed with their teeth. Those who had fled to the castle, when they yielded, were almost all hanged. Thus they did at the city of Matiscon; counting it sport to cut off their arms and legs and afterward kill them; and for the entertainment of their visiters, they often threw the protestants from a high bridge into the river, saying, "Did you ever see men leap so well?"

At Penna, after promising them safety, 300 were inhumanly butchered; and five and forty at Albin, on the Lord's day. At Nonne, though it yielded on conditions of safeguard, the most horrid spectacles were exhibited. Persons of both sexes and conditions were indiscriminately murdered; the streets ringing with doleful cries, and flowing with blood; and the houses flaming with fire, which the abandoned soldiers had thrown in. One woman, being dragged from her hiding place with her husband, was first abused by the brutal soldiers, and then with a sword which they commanded her to draw, they forced it while in her hands into the bowels of her husband.

At Samarobridge, they murdered above 100 protestants, after promising them peace; and at Antisidor, 100 were killed, and cast part into a jakes, and part into a river. One hundred put into prison at Orleans, were destroyed by the furious multitude.

The protestants at Rochelle, who were such as had miraculously escaped the rage of hell, and fled there, seeing how ill they fared who submitted to those holy devils, stood for their lives; and some other cities, encouraged thereby, did the like. Against Rochelle, the king sent almost the whole power of France, which besieged it seven months, though, by their assaults, they did very little execution on the inhabitants, yet, by famine, they destroyed eighteen thousand out of two and twenty. The dead being too numerous for the living to bury, became food for vermin and carnivorous birds. Many taking their coffins into the church yard, laid down in them, and breathed their last. Their diet had long been what the minds of those in plenty shudder at; even human flesh entrails, dung, and the most loathsome things, became at last the only food of those champions for that truth and liberty, of which the world was not worthy. At every attack, the besiegers met with such an intrepid reception, that they left 132 captains, with a proportionate number of men, dead in the field. The siege at last was broken up at the request of the duke of Anjou, the king's brother, who was proclaimed king of Poland, and the king, being wearied out, easily complied, whereupon honourable conditions were granted them.

It is a remarkable interference of Providence, that, in all this dreadful massacre, not more than two ministers of the gospel were involved in it.

The tragical sufferings of the protestants are too numerous to detail; but the treatment of Philip de Deux will give an idea of the rest. After the miscreants had slain this martyr in his bed, they went to his wife, who was then attended by the midwife, expecting every moment to be delivered. The midwife entreated them to stay the murder, at least till the child, which was the twentieth, should be born. Notwithstanding this, they thrust a dagger up to the hilt into the poor woman. Anxious to be delivered, she ran into a corn loft; but hither they pursued her, stabbed her in the belly, and then threw her into the street. By the fall, the child came from the dying mother, and being caught up by one of the catholic ruffians, he stabbed the infant, and then threw it into the river.

Book Of Martyrs by John Fox p. 58-62