On this day in 1572, French Catholics initiated the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, a wave of mob violence directed against the Huguenots (Calvinist Protestants). Bartholomew was one of Jesus’ 12 apostles.
The massacre lasted several weeks after starting in Paris and spreading to surrounding provinces. King Charles IX had ordered the killing of a group of Huguenot leaders, a move praised and fully supported by Pope Gregory XIII, although it was met with utter horror by some Catholics.
Modern estimates for the number of dead across France vary widely, from 5,000 to 30,000.
