The Wars of Religion in Seventeenth-Century Huguenot Thought

Abstract

During the seventeenth century the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew received surprisingly little attention. The Machiavellian libertin Gabriel Naudé might have praised it, but he was the exception that proves the rule.¹ Much more typical was Richelieu, who in 1617 depicted the Massacre as a shameful and horrible episode, blaming it on the threats of the Protestants.² (Conversely, Tilenus in 1622 regarded it as the origin of the monarchomach views held by some of the Huguenots.³) The proper tone in which to speak of the event was one of eloquent revulsion, as we find for example in Mézeray, or Louis XIV’s tutor Hardouin de Péréfixe, or even Maimbourg on the eve of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.⁴

These remarks are based on an extensive but by no means exhaustive study of the sources. They are merely an impressionistic sketch, and attempt little more than to suggest certain lines of general interpretation. Annotation has been kept to a minimum. The reader desiring more background is referred to books on the subject by Jean Orcibal and Walter Rex, Jr.