BARTHOLOMEW'S (ST.) DAY (Fr. La St.-Barthelemy; Ger. Bartholanzdusnacht, i.e., Bartholomew's night, or Bluthochzeit, i.e., blood-wedding), the appellation given to the massacre of the Protestants in Paris on the night of St. B. D., between 24th and 25th Aug., 1572. After the death of Francis II. in 1560, Catharine de' Medici (q.v.), as regent for her son, Charles IX., a minor, in order to annoy the Catholic party of the duke Francis of Guise (q.v.), had granted an edict of toleration to the Reformed, at whose head was the prince of Conde. Both parties took up arms, and there ensued a war which lasted for eight years, the cruelties of which, through mutual exasperation, are almost incredible. The duke Francis of Guise was murdered by an assassin, and the prince of Conde was taken prisoner in the battle of Jarnac, in 1569, and shot. The young prince Henry of Beam, afterwards king Henry IV., a nephew of Conde. then became leader of the Reformed, along with admiral Coligny (q.v.). It was not till the strength of both sides was exhausted, that the peace of St. Germain-en-Layc was concluded in 1370, whereby the Reformed obtained the free exercise of their religion. Catharine de' Medici now expressed much friendliness towards the Reformed, and even endeavored to lull them into negligence by the marriage of the youthful Henry of Beam with her daughter Margaret, 18th Aug., 1572. Admiral Coligny was drawn to Paris, and the king not only made him costly presents, but gave him an important office in the council of state However, all this was only the basest hypocrisy. When, by means of the marriage of prince Henry, the most eminent of the Reformed had been allured to Paris, admiral Coligny was wounded by a shot from a window of the palace on 22d Aug., 1572. The king, indeed, hastened to him, and swore to avenge him; but, on the very same day, thehing was persuaded by his mother that the admiral sought his life. " By God's
death I" he exclaimed, "let the admiral be slain, and not him only, but all the Hugue nots, till not one remain that can give us trouble 1" That night, Catharine held a coun cil, and appointed St. B. D. for carrying into effect the long-contemplated massacre. After Coligny had been murdered, a bell in the tower of the royal palace, at the hour of midnight, gave the signal to the assembled companies of citizens for a general massacre of the Huguenots. The king himself fired from his palace upon those that were fleeing past. The prince of Conde and the king of Navarre only saved their lives by going to mass, and appearing to conform to the Catholic church. The provinces were at the same time summoned to similar slaughter; and although in some of them the officials were ashamed to publish the murderous commands which had been transmitted to them, there were found bloodthirsty fanatics enough, who perpetrated the greatest hor rors for several weeks together in almost all the provinces, so that it was reckoned that 30,000 (some authorities make the number 70,000) persons were murdered. The pope celebrated the events of St. B. D. by a procession to the church of St. Louis, a grand 7e Deum, and the proclamation of a year of jubilee. Many of the Huguenots fled to pathless mountains and to La Rochelle, to which the duke of Anjou laid siege. Upon receiving intelligence, however, that he had been elected king of Poland, he made an arrangement on July 6, 1573, according to which the king granted to the Huguenots an amnesty, and the exercise of their religion in certain towns.