What Is The St Mcgraw's Day Massacre

On August 24, 1572, Catholic troops opened fire on innocent Protestants that were waiting for the time of a royal wedding in Paris, France killing nearly two-three thousand people and eventually spreading to other French cities and racked up to nearly five-six thousand people dead. This horrifying event is famously known as the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, one of the most disturbing events in the sixteenth century. There are reasons for the Catholic’s actions, whether they are justifying or not, the Catholics felt it would be the best solution. Many questions arise of why they did what they did. And many things took place during the run-up of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. “(St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre) was done to cast blame on
certain individuals and exonerate others, but it was also done to manipulate perceptions of the fundamental motives behind the massacre, which was presented on the one hand as the necessary response to an upending coup and on the other hand as a pre-mediated and unprovoked murder. ”
Religion acted as if it were medicine for the community.
It aided them through disease, famine, and hardships. The Christians are taught that if they believe in the Holy Spirit, they will live better lives for the present and their afterlives, many poor people in the sixteenth century believed that if they devoted their lives toward God, their lives will take the turn for the better. “Some historians have identified a kind of bookkeeping mentality – an arithmetic of salvation – in the attempts of late medieval clerics and laypeople to try to calculate just how much punishment various sins might entail. At the same time, the church attempted to ease the burden of penance by increasingly allowing people the option of substituting cash payments for acts of reparation, such as going on pilgrimage or reciting certain prayers.” They could be forgiven by the church and god if they paid the church dues for the sin they have committed. They practically brainwashed the people into believing that they could do anything within reason and pay their way out of it. It was a way of getting what the church wanted, money, and it made the people of the church very happy. “Martin Luther’s challenge to this practice, known as the ‘sale of indulgences’, began the Protestant Reformation that ended up dividing the Western
Christendom.”
Luther did not mean to divide the church, he just wanted to get rid of what he thought was a bad practice for Christians.
Luther was prosecuted and escaped the punishment of burning to death. Others were intrigued and began following this practice after they heard about it.
At the University of Paris, they disapproved the teachings by Luther. John Calvin was on the committee and was interested in Luther’s teachings. Calvin fled France when it became too dangerous and went to Switzerland and the Holy Roman Empire. “Organizing the new church, negotiating relations with secular authorities, and elaborating a systematic Reformed theology took a lot of Calvin’s energy during the years that followed, but he never lost sight of his goal dear to his heart: to convert his native France to a Reformed
faith.”
Following years later, the Reformed churches were growing rapidly, more than twelve hundred Reformed churches were created in France. “In Paris, tensions rose to new heights in December 1561, when Protestants worshipping in a house in the faubourg of Saint-Marcel clashed with Catholics attending Mass in the neighboring church of Saint-Médard.” Each group had different stories. The people of Saint-Marcel said that the Catholics had started it by becoming violent and the Catholics said that the Huguenots had started it by becoming violent and attacking priests while breaking ornaments. After following events, war eventually broke out in March 1562 between the two groups. “Protestants crowds engaged in iconoclastic sprees, destroying alters, relics, and other objects the Catholics held as holy. Meanwhile, cities such as that remained in Catholic hands expelled members of the opposing faith and violently attacked anyone suspected of siding with the enemy.”
The Protestants eventually planned to kidnap the king Charles IX while he was hunting. He later found out and fled to a secure place. Many believe the Protestants never truthfully told what they had planned. They only said they wanted to talk to the king, not kidnap him. So many believe this is why the king reacted so harshly on the situation. He was scared and furious with the Protestants.
Things remained tense throughout late 1571 through early 1572. On the day of Charles’ wedding, the Catholics took advantage of the large numbers of Huguenots. It started when an assassin fired on Admiral Coligny after leaving from a meeting with Charles IX. The admiral was only injured by the bullet and the Huguenots were not pleased by hearing about the incident. Nobody knows for sure the assassin was, but he is one of the main reasons why this event took place and is still talked about to this day. When the royal family heard rumors about Protestants waiting outside the city about to capture the family, they called for an attack on all Huguenots including Coligny. These rumors were not true, but many believed them and it created widespread chaos and eventually creating a historical massacre that killed thousands of people.