Remembering France's Heritage: Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre

August 24, 1572 (436 years ago) is a day that has lived in infamy in the annals of the French Reformed (Protestant) Church. The date is remembered for what is commonly called “The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre” (Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy in French).

Though Charles IX was enthroned as king, his mother, Catherine de Médici, still played a dominant role in the kingdom. In an effort to escape dominance by the House of Guise (Catholic) while at the same avoiding dependence on Admiral Coligny, leader of the Huguenot forces, Catherine desired to wed her daughter Marguerite (sister to Charles IX) to the young Protestant Henry of Navarre. The wedding took place on August 18, 1572.

The Huguenot nobility and followers of the young King of Navarre had flocked into a zealously Catholic Paris, heightening the tension already existing in the city. Four days following the wedding, Admiral Coligny’s life was almost taken when shots were fired at him from a window. The perpetrators were unknown but panic ensued. In the brouhaha of secret meetings, negotiations, etc., Catherine determined to capitalize on the presence of so many Huguenot leaders. Early on August 24 (a feast day in honor of Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles), Catherine gave the word and the blood bath began. The wounded Coligny was killed in his bed, his body thrown out the window and dragged through the streets. The blood-thirsty mobs and Guise-controlled gangs continued the butchery, atrociously slaughtering the unsuspecting Huguenots and committing crimes on their victims that are repulsive even to the most perverted of minds. The exact number of fatalities is not known, but it has been estimated that more than 2,000 innocent Huguenots were killed in Paris and more than 3,000 in the French provinces.

(Painting by François Dubois, 1529–84)

Remembering France's Heritage: A Protestant/Catholic Wedding

On this day 436 years ago, August 18, 1572, the 19-year-old, Roman Catholic-reared Marguerite de Valois ascended a platform outside the entry of a Parisian church to meet her groom, the French King of Navarre Henry de Bourbon. Henry (better known as Henry IV of France) was the son of Jeanne d'Albret, the acknowledged spiritual and political leader of the French Huguenot movement, and grandson to Margaret of Navarre, a sister of King Francis I of France and a strong supporter of the French Reformation. Hence, Henry had been raised a Huguenot and instructed in the Reformed faith.

Marguerite was the product of the union between Henry II, King of France, and Italian aristocrat Catherine de Medici, and it was her mother Catherine who was primarily responsible for arranging this new marriage alliance in an effort to escape dominance by the Catholic Guises. Henry’s Huguenot mother had at first strongly opposed the marriage, unwilling that her son should marry a Roman Catholic, but eventually caved in to the political pressure and allowed the union.

The two families had agreed that the ceremony should be performed in a way not entirely conformable to the rites of either church. It would not be entirely Reformed, in that the vows were to be received by a Cardinal; not Romish, because the vows were to be received without the sacrament. Following the ceremony, the groom retired to a Protestant meeting to hear a sermon and the bride went into the church to take Mass.

The religious import of this wedding that took place more than four centuries ago can be seen in two significant results, one more distant and one more immediate. On the one hand, it strengthened Henry of Navarre’s claim to the throne of France when it might otherwise have been challenged following the death of Marguerite’s three brothers. Because of his Huguenot upbringing and familial associations, Henry IV’s rule did for a time grant some relief to the Huguenot people through the signing of the Edict of Nantes in 1598. More immediately, however, this wedding set the stage for the terrible “St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre” which occurred just six days after the wedding while the festivities were still in progress. The wedding had brought a great flock of the Huguenot nobility and many followers of the young King of Navarre into a zealously Roman Catholic Paris, heightening the tension in the city. The Romish leaders, including Catherine de Medici and her son, King Charles IX, saw the presence of so many Huguenot leaders as a prize not to be lost and determined to “kill them all” (as Charles IX is reported to have screamed). More on that brutal Huguenot slaughter later ….

Celebrating Our Heritage: Singin' Billy Walker

Though it seems we often find ourselves far from home when we explore some bit of church history, we were pleased recently to discover a little bit of church history right in our own back yard (at least, not very far from it). Our very own hometown Spartanburg also served as home to musician William Walker (1809-75), who is important to church history most especially for the contribution of The Southern Harmony, a shape-note collection of Gospel songs and hymns. It was in this collection that the words and music of what has since been dubbed “the spiritual anthem of America” first appeared together in print. Walker probably derived the tune we now connect only with this great hymn, “Amazing Grace”, from the African plantation slaves. Though unconfirmed, some have surmised that Walker may have added the last verse (“When we’ve been there ten thousand years …”) to this famous hymn text by John Newton. It was Walker’s passion to educate the common man in the art of music, and it was his tunebooks (800,000 copies of The Southern Harmony were sold) which popularized Newton’s classic hymn.

We recently visited Walker’s grave in Magnolia Cemetery (pictured here), located barely more than a mile away from our present home at the parsonage of Cleveland Park Bible Church. It was “amazing” to stand there and consider that we were so near the spot where that famous hymn may first have been sung in the form in which we know it today, but it’s even more amazing to consider the amazing grace of God which that song extols.

Slideshow: Midwest Trip, II

God has brought us safely back from our Ohio/Illinois trip which lasted 3 ½ weeks and 2,375.9 miles. Our van now has more than 192,000 miles on it, but the only mishap was a flat tire on I-70 just inside Columbus, Ohio.

We are thankful for all that we experienced, the friends we made, and all that God taught us. We will be in the Spartanburg area for the rest of the month with a couple of weekend trips into North Carolina. Thank you to all who have ministered to us. Please keep praying with us that God will speed us on our way.