St. Bartholomew, perpetrated in Paris, on Sunday, the 24th August, 1572, during the pontificate of Gregory XIII., of infamous memory; at which mournful tragedy the emperor, Charles IX., assisted in person, who, not afraid of the thunders of God's judgment alighting upon his devoted head, actually boasted of the number of victims he had slain. As it would exceed our prescribed limits to enter into all the melancholy particulars of this well-organized massacre, I can only advert to a few of its most hideous features. For some time previous to this bloody night an apparent peace reigned throughout France, (and who, after this, can trust to Rome's fair looks?) and everything portended festivity and joy. All the Protestant princes and nobles had assembled within the city to celebrate the nuptials between the King of Navarre and Margaret of France. On this memorable occasion it was that Rome seized her long-desired opportunity for carnage and bloodshed. And too well did she avail herself of a period so favourable to the destruction of the enemies of her empire! About midnight the dreadful volcano which lay concealed-but which gave forebodings of an eruption by the assassination of Admiral Coligny-burst forth with fury indescribable. The great bell of St. Germain l'Auxerrois was sounded for the signal, and immediately all the Pope's emissaries were at their assigned posts: whilst slaughter, devastation, and billows of blood, tracked the footsteps of the assassins. This scene of Popish cruelty was unmitigated in its severity for the space of seven days. But was this mortal contagion confined to Paris? Alas! no. The same horrors which had convulsed and terrified the capital, were repeated at Meaux, Troyes, Orleans, Nevers, La Charite, Toulouse, Bourdeaux, Rouen, and Lyons -each was crimsoned with the blood of its Protestant inhabitants.

The Cardinal of Lorraine caused 1,000 crowns in gold to be given to the messenger who announced his death.-Lacretelle, Guerres de Religion, tom. ii., p. 298.

The actual number of victims who perished during this scene of carnage cannot satisfactorily be ascertained. Davilla says, that "there were killed in the city that day and the next, above 10,000, whereof 500 were barons, knights, and gentlemen;" and computes the entire number of slain at 40,000.* Papire Masson states that the victims slaughtered in the provinces alone amounted to 10,000; La Popeliouère calculates the number destroyed in the city and country to be 20,000; Adriani and De Thou give a total of 30,000; Doctor Lardner, of 60,000; Sully, of 70,000; and Péréfixe, of 100,000!!!

The Roman Catholic French historian, Mezeray, thus depicts the horrors of that memorable event:

"The daylight, which discovered so many crimes, which the darkness of an eternal night ought for ever to have concealed, did not soften their ardour by these objects of pity, but exasperated them still more. The populace and the most dastardly being warmed by the smell of blood, sixty thousand men, transported with this fury, and armed in different ways, ran about wherever example, vengeance, rage, and the desire of plunder transported them. The air resounded with a horrible tempest of the hisses, blasphemies, and oaths of the murderers, of the breaking open of doors and windows, of the firing of pistols and guns, of the pitiable cries of the dying, of the lamentations of the women whom they dragged by the hair, of the noise of carts, some loaded with the booty of the houses they pillaged, others with the dead bodies, which they cast into the Seine,† so

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that in this confusion they could not hear each other speak in the streets, or, if they distinguished certain words, they were these furious expressions, Kill, stab, throw them out of the window.' A dreadful and inevitable death presented itself in every shape. Some were shot on the roofs of houses, others were cast out of the windows, some were cast into the water, and knocked on the head with blows of iron bars or clubs, some were killed in their beds, some in the garrets, others in cellars; wives in the arms of their husbands, husbands on the bosoms of their wives, sons at the feet of their fathers. They neither spared the aged, nor women great with child, nor even infants.

*

The streets were paved with the bodies of the dead or the dying, the gateways were blocked up with them. There were heaps of them in the squares, the small streams were filled with blood, which flowed in great torrents into the river."*

What a spectacle to behold! The same historian gives also heart-rending details of the massacre in the provinces.

Now there are two particulars connected with this slaughter that deserve attention, viz., first-the predetermination of the Popish party to perpetrate such a bloody deed; and secondly-the spirit of elation manifested by the Pope, and his compeers, after the accomplishment of it.

With regard to the former, it is a matter of notoriety, learned from MSS. belonging to the parties concerned in the atrocious scheme, that this foul deed was determined upon fully two years before its execution; and that Catherine de Medicis (who governed the kingdom of France after the demise of Francis II.), assisted by the Jesuits, planned the whole transaction, and directed the issue thereof. The Duke of Guise, and the Jesuit Maldonat, were also engaged in this fiendish plot which was "to make one utter extirpation of the rebellious Hugonots!" and in the carrying out of which, as the Duke

*Mezeray, Histoire de France, fol. tom. 2, p. 1098 (Paris, 1646).

of Sully asserts, the priests and Jesuits were the most active and indefatigable instigators. Davila in his remarks on the peace ratified in 1570, observes, that the queen-mother, the king, the Duke of Anjou, and the Cardinal of Lorraine, granted the Hugonots an apparent peace in order to get their foreign allies out of France, "e poscia con arte e con opportunita opprimere i capi della fattione," and afterwards artfully, and at a fitting opportunity, to overwhelm the chiefs of the faction. Père Griffet confirms this statement, and says it was made "dans la vue de les envelopper, plus surement et plus aisement dans un massacre general," with a view to involve them the more surely, and the more readily, in a general

massacre.

As regards the latter, no sooner did the news of the dreadful havoc reach Rome, than public rejoicings were instantly visible; and not only here but throughout papal Europe this maternal act of the "mother and mistress of all Churches" was hailed by national festivities, discharges of artillery, ringing of bells, and bonfires! Both Fleury and Mazeray relate that the Pope (Gregory XIII.) "went in state to the Church of St. Lewis to return God thanks for so happy a result," and offered up a solemn mass, and had the Te Deum chanted on the occasion.* "In the evening," writes another historian, "fireworks were discharged at Adrian's mole in token of the public rejoicing, fires were kindled everywhere in the streets, and nothing was omitted which usually took place at all the greatest victories of the Church of Rome.† The Pope also despatched Cardinal Fabius Ursinus upon special embassy to the King of France, thanking "the eldest son of the Church" for his exertions in the ex

a

*Fleuri Histoire Ecclesiastique, tom. 23, livre 173, p. 557. (A Nismes, 1780.)

+ Sub vesperam in Hadriani mole in publicæ lætitæ signum displosa tormenta, ac passim per vias accensi ignes, nibilque eorum prætermissum, quæ in cunctis ac maximis, quibusque pro ecclesiæ Romanæ victoriis fieri solent.-T. Aug. Thuani Historiarum, lib. 53. (Londini, 1733.)

tirpation of heresy. In Spain the same deed was panegyrized in the presence of Philip II., who had a play acted before him under the title of the "Triumph of the Church Militant!" A Bull was also issued for a jubilee to be held throughout the kingdom of France, on Dec. 7, 1572, as a day of great joy for the success of the massacre. But, lest those acts should not be a sufficient testimony of Rome's complacency at this scene of butchery, the Pope actually directed large paintings to be made representing the dire scene (which although much defaced are still to be seen at Rome), and, likewise had medals struck in commemoration of the event, upon the upper side of which are the words" Gregorius XIII. Pont. Max. An. I. F. P." "Gregory XIII. 1572, the supreme pontiff;" and, on theunder side," Ugonotorum strages," "the slaughter of the Hugonots," with a device representing the destroying angel with a cross in one hand a sword in the other, and the unfortunate Protestants bleeding and agonizing at his feet! The Rev. A. Sillery, A.M., of Dublin, who was not very long since in Rome, and with whom I have had the pleasure of conversing since his return, purchased two of those medals at the Mint; one in bronze, and the other in silver; so that there can be no doubt about the matter.

Let no

person, then, have the hardihood to affirm, that this cold-blooded slaughter had not the hearty concurrence of the Church of Rome.

With reference to the paintings just alluded to, Misson speaks as follows,-" Since I am about pictures, I cannot forbear taking notice of the murder of Admiral Coligny, the history of which is curiously described in three large pieces, in the hall, where the Pope gives audience to ambassadors. In the first, Coligny is represented as he was carried to his house, after he was wounded by the assassin, Morevil; and, at the bottom of the picture are these words,

Gaspar Colignius Admirallius accepto vulnere, domum refertur, Greg. XIII. Pont. Max. 1572;' that is, 'Gasper Coligny the Admiral, is carried home wounded; in the Pontificate of Gregory XIII. 1572. The second exhibits him murdered in the same house, together with his son-inlaw, Teligny, and others, with these words, Cades Colignii et sociorum ejus;' 'The slaughter of Coligny and his companions.' And, in the third, the news of the execution is brought to the King, who seems pleased with it, as it appears by the subscription. 'Rex Colignii necem probat.' The King approves of the murder of Coligny.'

999*

(To be continued.)

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF THE RIGHT HON. LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGUE TO HER DAUGHTER, THE COUNTESS OF BUTE, ON THE ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIGION.

Louvere, Oct. 20, 1757. MY DEAR CHILD,-I have read over Richardson-he sinks horridly in his third volume; (he does so in his story of Clarissa). When he talks of Italy, it is plain he is no better acquainted with it than he is with the kingdom of Mancomingo. He might have made his Sir Charles's amour with Clementina begin in a convent, where

the pensioners sometimes take great liberties; but that such familiarity should be permitted in her father's house, is as repugnant to custom, as it would be in London for a young lady to dance on the ropes at Bartholomew fair: neither does his hero behave to her in a manner suitable to his nice notions. It was impossible a discerning man should not see her passion early enough to check it, if he had really designed it. After having alluded to a proposal of marriage between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant, her Ladyship says-Nor do I approve Sir Charles's offered compro