[Illustration: CÆDES COLIGNII ET SOCIORUM EJUS. THE MASSACRE IN PARIS. From the Picture in the Vatican by Vasari.] THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. PRECEDED BY A HISTORY OF THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES IX. BY HENRY WHITE. [Illustration] WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1868. PREFACE. In the following pages I have endeavored to describe the great struggle which devastated France in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and culminated in the memorable tragedy of St. Bartholomew’s Day. The nature of that struggle can not be fairly understood, unless the condition of the Protestants under Francis I. and his two immediate successors be taken into consideration. In those fiery times of trial the Huguenot character was formed, and the nation gradually separated into two parties, so fanatically hostile, that the extermination of the weaker seemed the only possible means of re-establishing the unity of France. The three preliminary chapters necessarily contain many notices of the cruel persecutions which the Reformers had to suffer at the hands of the dominant Church; but the author would be much grieved were it supposed that he had written those chapters with any desire to rekindle the dying embers of religious strife. On that portion of his work he dwells with pain and regret; but such pages of history contain warnings that it may be well to repeat from time to time. Though there may be little danger of our drifting back to the atrocities of the sixteenth century, and though we no longer burn men, mob-law and other forms of terrorism are still employed to stifle free discussion, and check individual liberty. From this to the prison, the rack, and the stake, the step is not so wide as it appears. Moreover, it is good to revive occasionally the memory of those who have “served God in the fire,” for the instruction of their descendants, who have the good fortune to live in times when they can “honor God in the sunshine.” Such examples of patience and firmness under torture, of self-devotion, of child-like reliance on the spiritual promises of their Divine Master, of obedience to conscience, and of faithfulness to duty, are fruitful for all ages. They serve to show not only that persecution is a mistake, but that the final victory is not with the successful persecutor. Man’s real strength consists in prudence and foresight--qualities which belong but to few; and if this small intelligent class (and such the early Reformers were, even by the confession of their enemies) be driven out or exterminated, the ignorant masses are lost. Spain and Italy