St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

At the end of his recent trip to Paris to celebrate World Youth Day, Pope John Paul II conducted a mass attended by an estimated one million people from throughout the world. The date of this event was August 24, the anniversary of the infamous St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572, in which tens of thousands of Protestant Christians were butchered by Roman Catholics at the instigation of Catholic authorities.

To diffuse the controversy which was swirling around the occasion, the Pope issued an apology of sorts on August 23 at a late-night vigil with the hundreds of thousands of young people who were in Paris for the celebrations. He made the following comments as reported by Reuter and the Associated Press --

"On the eve of Aug. 24, we cannot forget the sad massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, an event of very obscure causes in the political and religious history of France. ... Christians did things which the Gospel condemns. I am convinced that only forgiveness, offered and received, leads little by little to a fruitful dialogue, which will in turn ensure a fully Christian reconciliation. ... Belonging to different religious traditions must not constitute today a source of opposition and tension. On the contrary, our common love for Christ impels us to seek tirelessly the path of full unity."

Pope John Paul II states that the cause of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre is obscure. This is a half truth. There were many obscure factors involved in the behind-the-scenes intrigue which led up to the massacre, but one very evident cause of the massacre was the repeated call by various popes for the extermination of the Protestants in France. The cause, simply put, was the incessant hatred exhibited by the Roman Catholic hierarchy toward anyone who would dare to attempt to follow Christ apart from Romanism. This is a matter of public record. Eventually a plan was devised by Catholic authorities in France to destroy the Huguenot Protestants by inviting them to a wedding. The Huguenots had been bitterly tormented and had fought in self-defense in an attempt to preserve themselves a place in the land. A peace treaty had been signed with them a short while before the St. Bartholomew Massacre, and they wanted nothing more than to dwell in peace and to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience and their understanding of the Word of God. When the Huguenots were settled in various dwellings in Paris for the wedding and were completely unsuspecting of foul play, at a preset signal they were set upon by mobs who "neither spared the aged, nor women great with child, nor even infants" (Mezerai, History of France, II, p. 1098). In three terrible days "six hundred houses were repeatedly pillaged, and 4,000 persons massacred, with all the confusion and barbarity that can be imagined" (Ibid.). Thousands of others were murdered outside of Paris. "All over France the massacre was carried out. The fearful scenes of Paris were repeated in almost all the kingdom.... The massacre dragged out in the provinces for two long weary months until the persecutors, wearied of blood shedding, dropped their blunted swords" (Ian Paisley, The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, pp. 110,111).

Pope John Paul II failed to mention the role of the popes in instigating the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

He also failed to mention the public glee exhibited by Pope Gregory XIII when he learned of the butchery which had been committed. Consider the following amazing facts of history:

"The news of the bloody deed was received with unbounded joy by the pope at the Vatican. The Cardinal of Lorraine presented the messenger who brought the news to Rome with a thousand pieces of gold and exclaimed that the King's heart had been filled with a sudden inspiration from God when he ordered the massacre (Smedley, History of the Reformed Religion in France, 1834, II, p. 36).

"The pope and his Cardinals proceeded at once to the High Altar, after the dispatches from Paris had been read in Conclave, to offer thanks for 'the great blessing which Heaven vouchsafed to the Roman See and to all Christendom. Salvoes of artillery thundered at nightfall from the ramparts of St. Angelo; the streets were illuminated; and no victory ever achieved by the arms of the Pontificate elicited more tokens of festivity. The pope also, as if resolved that an indestructible evidence of the perversion of moral feeling which Fanaticism necessarily generates should be transmitted to posterity, gave orders for the execution of a commemorative Medal' (Smedley, II, p. 35).

"This medal, an original of which can be seen in the British Museum inculcated the message that the massacre was the joint result of Papal counsel and Divine instrumentality. On one side of the medal is a profile of the pope surrounded by his name and title and on the other side an angel is depicted bearing in one hand a cross and in the other a sword with which he is killing a fallen host of Huguenots. The wording on this side is 'The Slaughter of the Huguenots 1572.'

"Wylie describes the rejoicing and thanksgiving of the pope as follows: "'Through the streets of the Eternal City swept, in the full blaze of Pontifical pomp, Gregory and his attendant train of cardinals, bishops and monks, to the Church of St. Mark, there to offer up prayers and thanksgivings to the God of heaven for His great blessing to the See of Rome and the Roman Catholic Church. Over the portico of the church was hung a cloth of purple, on which was a Latin inscription most elegantly embroidered in letters of gold, in which it was distinctly stated that the massacre had occurred after "counsels had been given." On the following day the Pontiff went in procession to the Church of Minerva, where, after mass, a jubilee was published to all Christendom, "that they might thank God for the slaughter of the enemies of the Church, lately executed in France." A third time did the pope go in procession, with his cardinals and all the foreign ambassadors then resident at his court, and after mass in the Church of St. Louis, he accepted homage from the Cardinal of Lorraine, and thanks in the name of the King of France, for the counsel and help he had given him by his prayers, of which he had found the most wonderful effects' (J.A. Wylie, History of Protestantism, II, p. 606).

"As an enduring monument the pope commanded three paintings to be put in hand by George Vasari. These frescoes originally bore the following inscriptions, 'Gaspard Coligny, the Admiral is carried home wounded;' 'The slaughter of Coligny and his companions;' 'The King approves Coligny's slaughter.' Some time ago the Vatican had the inscriptions deleted from the frescoes" (Wylie, II, p. 606).

"Such was the Unholy Rejoicing of 'Holy' Men over this unparalleled butchery of Protestants. Not content to imbrue their own hands in innocent blood they sought to stain the throne of God with that blood as well. In their sinful barbarity they blasphemously attempted to make the Eternal God of heaven not only a partner to their crime but indeed its very promoter and inspiration. Surely here we have, 'THE WOMAN DRUNKEN WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS AND WITH THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS OF JESUS'" (Ian Paisley, The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, pp. 117-120).

Pope John Paul II did not mention these historical facts in his "apology." Do not be deceived, friends. The pope has not apologized for the bloody and horrible 600-year Inquisition against humble Bible-believing saints, which was instigated formally by Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) (though it existed more informally prior to that) and was conducted mercilessly by the popes who succeeded him, century after century, until finally Rome was no longer politically capable of sustaining it in the late 1700s. THE INQUISITION WAS NOT A "MISTAKE" OR AN ISOLATED ERROR OR THE PROBLEM OF A MERE HANDFUL OF "BAD POPES." IT WAS THE FORMAL AND OFFICIAL POLICY OF THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF ROMAN CATHOLIC AUTHORITY FOR CENTURIES ON END. The pope has not admitted this; he has not condemned the Inquisition; he has not labeled his fellow popes the murderers they were. He has not cast aside his blasphemous titles (holy father, his holiness, holy pontiff, vicar of Christ). He has not cast aside his blasphemous doctrines, such as Mary the Queen of Heaven, mother of all Christians, immaculately conceived, etc. He has not rejected his false sacramental gospel which refuses to accept faith alone and Christ alone for salvation, adding, instead, Rome's sacraments as a necessity for salvation. (Vatican Council II and the New Catholic Catechism plainly state that baptism and the sacraments are necessary for salvation.) He has not admitted that his "church" is no such thing, but is a man-made institution with no foundation or pattern in the Apostolic New Testament faith. (From David Cloud's e-mail postings)