Religion and violence

Introduction

The eight wars of religion experienced by France between 1562 and 1598 were marked by many massacres. The first conflict was initiated by the massacre of dozens of Protestants in a barn in the town of Wassy in Champagne on 1 March 1562. The massacre of St Bartholomew[1] at the end of August 1572 and its extension to the provinces undoubtedly represents the zenith of this butchery, which tended to decline in the following years. Such incidents were not unique, either inside or outside Europe; massacres committed in the Russia of Ivan the Terrible (c1547-1584), massacres at the time of the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottomans (1571) and during the wars against Persia (1576-1592), as well as massacres in the Japan of Hidyoshi (1537-1595); the exception during this period was in Asia during the short reign of the Chinese emperor Longqing and that of the much longer reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar (c1556-1605), although he built his empire partly through force. The sack of Rome in 1527 and the conquest of the Aztecs by the conquistadores in the 1520s were accompanied by massacres which scandalised many observers and gave rise to lively denunciations. The massacre, though not something banal, was thus a feature of the mentality of the times and is often related to its biblical archetype, the massacre of the innocents[2] . Contemporary engravings such as those of Tortorel and Perrissin make implicit allusion to this.

The massacre of Wassy 1562InformationsInformations[3]

The civil wars of religion and the litany of cruelty and injustice which accompanied them are sometimes seen as crossing a new threshold of violence. The lexicon, moreover, is evidence of this. Even the term ‘massacre' in its contemporary sense is derived from a tract, Histoire memorable de la persecution et saccagement du people de Mérindol et a Cabrières, about the massacre of Vaudois[4] heretics in Provence . The term was originally associated with butchery, denoting the butcher's chopping block and the “massacre”, the knife. The term was used above all by Protestants describing Catholic violence and its use expanded markedly after St Bartholomew's Day, in France and abroad. From the end of the sixteenth century, the English commonly described this event as the “bloody massacre of Paris.” The semantics surrounding the word 'massacre' are always carefully selected in tracts and are employed to discredit an adversary; by 'massacre', these texts evoke cruelty, persecution and barbarism, a massacre as opposed to ordered violence and the chivalric code of honour used in war.

What is understood by 'massacre' here? According to the political theorist Jacques Sémelin, it can be defined as “a form of collective action aiming to destroy non combatants, generally civilians.” The massacre is not aimed at defeating the enemy, but at destroying its essence. While the massacre appears frenzied, irrational, it is based on a relatively logical intent and is sometimes a response to strategic imperatives.

Geography of massacresInformationsInformations[5]
  1. St Bartholomew

    On the night of 23 to 24 August 1572, the principal Protestant leaders gathered in Paris for the wedding of Henri de Navarre and Marguerite de Valois were murdered. The following morning the Parisian populace, believing that the killing was the will of God and ordered by Charles IX, unleashed their own murderous violence on the Protestants. In the following days the King took responsibility for the massacre. Throughout the following weeks, many of the towns in the kingdom experienced explosions of violence against Protestants. The victims of the massacre of St Bartholomew, according to historians, numbered between 5000 and 10000.

  2. Massacre of the innocents

    Biblical episode related in Matthew's gospel. Herod, King of Judea, had the young children in the Bethlehem region murdered in order to eliminate the King of the Jews, whose coming the magi had told him of.

  3. Source : The massacre at Vassy the first day of March 1562 »,print by Jacques Tortorel and Jean Jacques Perrissin, Premier volume contenant quarante tableaux ou histoire diverses qui sont mémorables touchant les guerres, massacres et troubles advenus en France ces dernières années, 1569-1570. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8400505v Paternité - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale

    The spectator finds himself plunged into the heart of the farm where the massacre took place. The composition of the scene and the image of the tortured victims evokes contemporary representations of the 'massacre of the holy innocents'. In the centre, the raising of the sword by the duc de Guise makes it clear beyond doubt who was responsible. The text('Monsieur de Guise qui commandoit') confirms what the image suggests, while other versions of the incident make the massacre a result of an escalation tensions present at the time. This print, like others from the same series of engravings from Lyons Protestant Tortorel et Perrissin, is therefore an image indicting the Catholics.

  4. Vaudois

    The Vaudois belonged to a religious movement founded by Valdès of Lyons in the twelfth century, and were considered heretical by the Catholic Church. From the fourteenth century Vaudois communities settled in the villages of Lubéron. In the sixteenth century, the Vaudois became part of Protestantism, especially Calvinism, while preserving their distinct spiritual identity.

  5. Source :Extrait de David EL KENZ, Les bûchers du roi, la culture protestante des martyrs (1523-1572), Seyssel, Champ-Vallon, 1997, p. 217 Paternité - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale

PrécédentPrécédentSuivantSuivant
AccueilAccueilImprimerImprimer Coordination générale : Dominique Avon - Professeur à l'Université du Maine (France) Paternité - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Partage des Conditions Initiales à l'IdentiqueRéalisé avec Scenari (nouvelle fenêtre)