Bartholomews Day

Bartholomew's Day, St., is August 24th, rendered memorable by the great massacre of Protestants, in France in 1572, by order of the Queen Regent, Catherine de Medicis. She had been apparently endeavouring to conciliate them, but at a time when the: chief Huguenot notables were in Paris, she persuaded the king that their leader, Admiral Coligny, sought his life, and he consented to a general massacre. Three strokes on a bell in the tower of the palace gave the signal, and bands of assassins, marked by a white badge on one arm, went forth to their task. Four thousand were slain in Paris, and according to various estimates from 30,000 to 70,000 were massacred altogether. The Pope and the Spanish Court received the news with enthusiasm; but the spirit of the Huguenots was only strengthened, and after a failure to take their stronghold, La Rochelle, Charles IX. was compelled to secure them that liberty of conscience which had been promised to them by the peace of St. Germain-en-Laye in 1570.