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7/27/2019 Davis the Rites of Violence- Religious Riot in 16th Cent France
1/42
The Past and Present Society
The Rites of Violence: Religious Riot in Sixteenth-Century FranceAuthor(s): Natalie Zemon DavisSource: Past & Present, No. 59 (May, 1973), pp. 51-91Published by: Oxford University Presson behalf of The Past and Present Society
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THE RITES OF VIOLENCE: RELIGIOUS
RIOT IN
SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE
*
These
are
the statutes nd
judgments,
which
ye
shall observe to do in the
land,
which
the
Lord God of
thy
fathers
giveth
thee...
Ye
shall
utterly
destroy
ll the
places
whereinthe nations which he shall
possess
served their
gods,
upon
the
high
mountains,
and
upon
the
hills,
and under
every green
tree:
And
ye
shall
overthrow
heir
ltars,
and break their
pillars
and burn their
groves
with
fire;
and
ye
shall hew down the
graven
mages
of their
gods,
and
destroy
he names of them out of that
place
[Deuteronomy
xii.
1-31].
Thus a Calvinist astor o his flock n 1562.1
If
thy
brother,
he son of
thy
mother,
r
thy
son,
or
thy daughter,
r the
wife of
thy
bosom,
or
thy
friend,
which
is
as thine own
soul,
entice
thee
secretly, aying
Let us
go
serve
other
gods,
which thou hast not
known, hou,
nor
thy
fathers... Thou shalt not consent unto
him,
nor
hearken
unto
him
... But
thou shalt
surely
kill
him;
thine
hand
shall
be
first
pon
him to
put
him to
death,
and afterwards he hand of all
the
people
....
If
thou
shalt hear
say
in one of
thy
cities,
which the Lord
thy
God hath
given
thee to dwell
there,
aying,
Certain
men,
the children f
Belial
are
gone
out from
mong you,
and have
withdrawn he inhabitants f their
ity, aying
Let
us
go
and
serve other
gods,
which
ye
have
not known...
Thou shalt
surely
mite the
nhabitants f that
city
with the
edge
of the
sword,
destroying
it
utterly
nd all
that s therein
Deuteronomy
xiii.
6,
8-9,
12-13,
151.
And
[Jehu]
ifted
up
his face
to the window and
said,
Who is on
my
side?
Who?
And there
looked out to him
two
or three
eunuchs. And
he
said,
Throw her down. So
they
threw
[Jezebel]
down: and
some of her blood
was
sprinkled
n the
wall,
and on
the
horses:
and he
trode
her
under foot
..
And
they
went to
bury
her: but
they
found no more of her than the
skull
and
the feet nd the
palms
of
her hands
...
And
[Jehu]
aid,
This is
the word of
the
Lord,
which he
spake by
his
servant
Elijah...
saying,
n the
portion
of
Jezreel
hall
dogs
eat the flesh f
Jezebel:
And the carcase
of
Jezebel
shall
be
as
dung
upon
the
face
of the field
[II
Kings
ix.
32-3,
35-71].
Thus in
1568
Parisian
reachers
eld
up
to
their
atholic
arishioners
the end of
a wicked
dolater.2
Whatever he
intentions
f
pastors
* The research for this
paper
has been aided
by grants-in-aid
from the
American
Philosophical Society,
the American Council
of Learned Societies
and the
University
f
California,
Berkeley.
The
present
article
s
based
upon
a
paper
read at
the
Newberry Library
Renaissance Conference
marking
the
anniversary
f the Saint
Bartholomew
Day
Massacre,
held on
May
5
and
6
1972,
under the
chairmanship
of
ProfessorAlfred Soman.
The
proceedings
of
the Conference
are
being
edited
by
Dr.
Soman and will be
published
by
Martinus
Nijhoff,
The
Hague.
1
Histoire
ccldsiastique
es
Jlglises iformdes
u
Royaume
de France
(hereafter
Hist.
eccl.),
ed. G. Baum and
E.
Cunitz,
3
vols.
(Paris,
1883-9), i,
p.
537.
2
Claude
Haton,
Me'moires
e Claude Haton
contenant e
recit
des
ve'nements
accomplis
de
1553
a
1592,
principalement
ans la
Champagne
et
la
Brie,
ed.
Felix Bourquelot (Collection de documents inedits sur l'histoirede France),2
vols.
paginated
continuously
Paris,
1857),
pP.
527-8.
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3/42
52
PAST AND
PRESENT
NUMBER
59
and
priests,
uch wordswere
mong
he
many
purs
o
religious
iot
in
sixteenth-century
rance.
By
religious
riot
I
mean,
as a
preliminaryefinition,nyviolent ction,withwordsor weapons,
undertaken
gainstreligious argets y
people
who
are not
acting
officially
nd
formally
s
agents
of
political
and
ecclesiastical
authority.
As food
ioters
ring
heirmoral
ndignation
o bear
upon
the stateof the
grain
market,
o
religious
ioters
ring
heir eal to
bear
upon
the state
of men's relations o the sacred. The violence
of the
religious
iot s
distinguished,
t least
n
principle,
rom
he
action
of
political
uthorities,
ho can
legally
ilence, humiliate,
demolish,
unish,
orture
nd
execute;
and also from he actionof
soldiers,
who
at certain
imes
nd
places
can
legally
illand
destroy.
In midsixteenth-centuryrance, ll these ources f violencewere
busilyproducing,
nd
it
is sometimes ard to
tell
a militia
fficer
from murderernd a
soldier
rom
statue-smasher.
Nevertheless,
there re occasionswhenwe can
separate
ut
for xaminationviolent
crowd et on
religious
oals.
The
sixteenth
entury
tselfhad its own
generalizations
bout
crowdviolence. Once
in a
while t
was seen
as
having
kind of
system
r
sense.
In
Corpus
Christi
ay
drama,
heviolence
gainst
Christ s
represented
s a series
of formal
ompetitive games",
which
hide
from
His tormentorshefull
knowledge
fwhat
hey o.3In
Diirer's
Martyrdom
f
the Ten
Thousand,
hePersian orturersf
the
Christians re
spaced
apart,
doing
their errible usiness
n an
orderly,
ethodical
ay.'
Most
of he
ime, owever,
s
in
Breugel's
flaming
ulle
Griet
nd The
Triumph f
Death,
the
image
of
the
crowd
was one
of
chaos.
Learned writers alk
of
grain
rioters
n
Lyon
as "the
dregs
of the
populace,
with no
order,
no
rein,
no
leader... a beast
of
many
heads...
an
insane
rabble" and of
the
Paris
mob
as
"an
ignorant
multitude,
ollected
rom ll
nations...
governed y
the
ppetite
fthosewho
tir
hem
p
[to]
extreme
age,
just ooking or he chance o carry utanykindofcruelty".5
3
V.
A.
Kolve,
The
Play
Called
Corpus
Christi
Stanford,
1966),
ch. 8. Also
see
L. Petit
de
Julleville,
Histoire du
theatre
n France.
Les
mystdres,
vols.
(Paris, 188o),
ii,
pp.
391,
408,
444-5.
Breugel's
Procession o
Calvary
has some
of
this same
gamelike, "orderly" quality.
4
Philipp
Fehl,
"Mass
Murder,
or
Humanity
in
Death",
Theology
Today,
xxviii
(1971),
pp.
67-8;
E.
Panofsky,
The
Life
and
Art
of
Albrecht
Diirer
(Princeton,1955),
pp.
121-2. For
the
range
of
sixteenth-century
xplanations
of human
violence,
ee
J.
R.
Hale,
"Sixteenth-Century xplanations
of
War
and
Violence",
Past and
Present,
no.
51
(May 1971), PP.
3-26.
5
Guillaume
Paradin,
Memoires
de
l'Histoire
de
Lyon (Lyon, 1573), P.
238;
Hist.
eccl.,
i,
pp. 192-3.
See also
Christopher
Hill,
"The
Many-Headed
Monster
in Late
Tudor
and
Early
Stuart
Political
Thinking",
in C.
H.
Carter
(ed.), From the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation.ssays in honourof
Garrett
Mattingly
London,
1966), pp. 296-324.
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RELIGIOUS
RIOT IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY RANCE
53
Nowadays
his
hydra
monster as
taken n a more
orderly
hape,
as a
result
of the
work of
George
Rude,
Eric
Hobsbawm,
E. P. Thompson,CharlesTilly, EmmanuelLe Roy Ladurie and
others.6
We
may
see
these crowdsas
prompted
y
political
nd
moral raditions
hich
egitimize
nd even
prescribe
heir
violence.
We
may
see urban rioters
not as
miserable,
prooted,
unstable
masses,
but as men
and
women
who often
have some
stake
n
their
community;
ho
may
be craftsmenr
better;
nd
who,
even
when
poor
and
unskilled,
may appear respectable
o their
everyday
neighbours. Finally,
we
may
ee their
iolence,
however
ruel,
not
as random and
limitless,
ut
as aimed
at defined
targets
nd
selected
from
repertory
f
traditional
unishments
nd forms f
destruction.
This
picture
of
pre-industrial
rowd violence has been
drawn
primarily
rom
he
study
of
grain
and
bread
riots,
ax
riots,
raft
violence,
nd certain indsof
peasant
evolts.
The broad
spectrum
of
religious
iot,
owever,
as
not
received
nalytical
ttention,
xcept
in the ase
of he
nti-Semitic
ogrom
nd
themillenarian
ovement,7
both of
which have evident
contemporaryignificance
nd
non-
religious
eatures. To
present-day
hurch
historians,
specially
n
an
age
of
ecumenicalism,
he
popular
violence
f their
Calvinist
nd
Catholic ncestorsmayhavebeen an embarrassmentas is Belfast).
6
The literature n
crowds
and
violence is vast. I
list here
only
those
works
which have
especially
assisted the
preparation
of
this
paper: George Rude,
The Crowd
n
History.
A
Study
of
Popular
Disturbances n
France and
England,
1730-1848
(New York,
1964);
E.
J.
Hobsbawm,
Primitive
Rebels,
Studies in
Archaic Forms
of
Social
Movement n
the
9th
and
2oth
Centuries
Manchester,
1959);
E.
P.
Thompson,
"The Moral
Economy
of
the
English
Crowd in
the
Eighteenth
Century",
Past
and
Present,
o.
50
(Feb.
1971), pp. 76-136;
Charles
Tilly,
"Collective
Violence in
Nineteenth-Century
French
Cities"
(Public
Lecture,
Reed
College,
Feb.
1968);
"The
Chaos of the
Living City",
forth-
coming
in
Charles
Tilly (ed.),
The
Building of
an Urban
World;
Charles
Tilly
and
James
Rule,
Measuring
Political
Upheaval (Princeton,
1965)
-
I am
also
grateful o Charles Tilly forhis comments on thispaper; Emmanuel Le Roy
Ladurie,
Le
paysans
de
Languedoc,
2
vols.
(Paris,
1966),
i,
pp.
391-414,
495-
508,
607-29;
Roland
Mousnier,
Fureurs
paysannes
(Paris,
1967);
M. Mollat
and
Philippe
Wolff,
Ongles
bleus,
Jacques
et
Ciompi,
Les rdvolutions
opulaires
en
Europe
aux XIVe et
XVe
sikcles
Paris,
1970);
J.
R.
Hale,
"Violence in the
Late Middle
Ages:
A
Background",
n
Lauro
Martines
ed.),
Violence nd Civil
Disorder n talian
Cities,
200-1500
(Berkeley,
972),
pp.
19-37;
Neil
J. Smelser,
Theory
f
Collective
Behavior
New
York: Free
Press
Paperback, 1971).
There
are also some
helpful
classifications f crowds in
Elias
Canetti,
Crowds
and
Power,
tr.
Carol
Stewart
German
edn.
1960;
N.Y.,
1966),
pp.
48-73.
As
in,
for
nstance,
Philippe
Wolff,
The
1391 Pogrom
in
Spain.
Social
Crisis
or
Not?",
Past and
Present,
o.
50
(Feb.
1971),
PP. 4-18;
Norman
Cohn,
The
Pursuit
of
the
Millennium
2nd
edn.,
N.Y.,
1961);
Sylvia
L.
Thrupp
(ed.),
Millennial Dreams in Action. Studies in RevolutionaryReligiousMovements
(New York,
1970).
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54
PAST AND
PRESENT NUMBER
59
To social
historianst s the
eeming irrationality"
fmost
ixteenth-
century eligious
iot
hat
has
been
puzzling.
To bear
the
sword
n
the nameofa millennial reammightmake ome ense,butwhyget
so
excited bout
heEucharist r saints' elics It is hard o
decipher
the
social
meaning
f such
an event.
Not
surprisingly,
he
pioneering
emarks
f
C. Verlinden nd
his
colleagues
n
popular
conoclasm,
nd of
Janine
stebe on
popular
Catholic
violence,
nsist
upon
a
strong inkage
between
religious
conflictnd economic
ssues.
It is
argued
hat
rise n
grain
rices
triggers
hese
disturbances,
nd that the
Saint
Bartholomew's
massacres
re
also a
"class-crime",
rich
Huguenots eing
attacked
and
pillagedby preference".Beyond his,
Estebe
accounts
or
he
crowd ctionnthemassacres s an
expression
fthe
primitive
oulof
the
people,
pushed by
events nto
pathological
atred.
Similarly,
in
Philippe
Wolff's
tudy
f anti-Semitic
ogroms
n
Valencia
and
Barcelona
n
1391
and in
George
Rude's
analysis
f anti-Catholic
riots n
eighteenth-century
ondon,
there
s a
tendency
o
identify
the
"real" elements
n
the disturbance
s the ocial
ones,
ocial
being
defined
nly
n
terms
f
a conflict
f
poor
gainst
ich,
rtisans
gainst
wealthyburghers
r
craftsmen,
nd
wage-earners
gainst
manu-
facturersnd
merchants.8
There
is no doubt that
some
religious
violencehas thischaracter Wolff's vidence orBarcelonas very
good
ndeed but s this he
only
kind f ocial
meaning
nherent
n
a
religious
iot?
What does one make
of
popular
religious
iolence
where
lass conflict f this
type
s not
present?
I will
try
o answer hese
questions
n
regard
o
sixteenth-century
France
n
the course
of
this
paper.
My
first
urpose
s to describe
the
shape
and
structure
f the
religious
iot
n
French
cities
and
towns,
specially
n
the
56os
and
early 570s.
We
will look
t the
goals, legitimation
nd occasions
for
riots;
at the
kinds
of action
undertaken
y
the
crowds nd the
targets
or their
violence;
and
brieflyt theparticipantsn theriots nd their rganization.Wewill
consider ifferencesetween
rotestant
nd Catholic
tyles
f crowd
behaviour,
ut will also indicate he
manyways
n
which
hey
re
8
C.
Verlinden, J.
Craeybeckx,
E.
Scholliers,
"Mouvements
des
prix
et
des
salaires
en
Belgique
au XVIe
sidcle",
Annales.
E.S.C.,
x
(1955), pp.
185-7.
Janine
Esthbe,
Tocsin
pour
un
massacre.
La saison
des
Saint-Barthdlemy
Paris,
1968), pp.
97-8,
196
I135-6,
189-98.
Though
I
will
take
issue
at several
points
n
this
paper
with
Esthbe's
interpretation
f
the
massacres,
her
valuable
book
is
surely
he
most
imaginative tudy
we have
had of the social
psychology
of
that event.
Wolff,
Pogrom", p.
I6;
Rud6,
Crowd
n
History, p.
62,
138:
M.
Wolff
haracterizes
he
pogrom
t
Valencia,
where "violence
directed
gainst
theJewspredominates, ommittedmoreoverbypersonsfrom he mostdiverse
social
backgrounds",
as
"pseudo-religious"
(p.
I6).
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RELIGIOUS
RIOT
IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY
RANCE
55
alike. Our
sources
will be
contemporary
atholic
and
Protestant
accounts
f
religious
isturbance,
romwhich
we will do our
best
to
sortoututter abricationromikely act.9 I hopethis nquirywill
put
the massacres
f Saint
Bartholomew's
ay
n a new
perspective,
and
also
deepen
our
understanding
f
the
religious
iot
s a
type
of
collective
isturbance.
I
Whatthen an
we learn
f the
goals
of
popular
eligious
iolence?
What
werethe
crowds
ntending
o
do and
why
did
they
hink
hey
must do it?
Their behaviour
uggests,
irst f
all,
a
goal
akin
to
preaching:
he defence
f true doctrine
nd the refutation
f false
doctrine
hrough
ramatic
hallenges
nd
tests.
"You
blaspheme",shouts woman to a Catholic
preacher
n
Montpellier
n
I558
and,
having
roken hedecorum
fthe
ervice,
eads
part
fthe
congrega-
tionout
ofthechurch.
"You
lie",
shouts
sheathmakern themidst
of
the Franciscan's
Easter
sermon n
Lyon,
and
his words are
underscored
y
the
gunshots
f
Huguenots
waiting
n
the
square.10
9
Where
possible,
I
have tried
to
use
both Catholic
and
Protestant ccounts
of
the
same
episode.
For
instance,
for events
in
Toulouse
in
1562,
I
have used
among
others he account
of the Catholic G.
Bosquet
(Histoire
de M. G.
Bosquet,
sur es
troubles
dvenus
n la
ville
de
Tolose
'an
1562
[Toulouse, 1595])
and that
of the Reformed
Histoire
eccldsiastique.
I
have
taken
especially seriously
des-
criptions
f Catholic
violence
coming
from
Catholic writers
as
in the
Memoires
of thepriestClaude Haton) and descriptions f Protestant iolencecomingfrom
the Histoire
ecclesiastique.
These sources
are not
necessarily
elling
the whole
truth
about
their
party's
violence,
but
at least
we can assume that what
they
positively
describe
did occur.
I
have also
taken
especially seriously
the
omission f certainkinds
of violence n accusations made
by
one
party
bout
the
opposing party
for
instance,
that Catholic accounts
say very
little about the
desecration
of
corpses by
Protestant
rowds),
since these
writers how so little
willingness
to
put
their
opponents
in a favourable
ight.
If
certain kinds
of
violence are
regularly
not
attributed
o the
enemy,
then
I
thinkwe
can assume
that
they
did not in fact occur
very
often.
In
regard
to
accepting
evidence about acts
of
desecration
of
corpses,
torture
and acts
of
filth,
where there is
no
way
of
getting
"impartial"
eye-witness
accounts,
I
have used
my
judgement,
based
on a
general understanding
f the
range of possibilities n sixteenth-centuryehaviour. My guides here have
been French
legal practice
and
penalty,
Rabelais,
descriptions by
Pierre
de L'Estoile
of behaviour in Paris in
the late
sixteenth
century,
and the
comments
f
Montaigne
on tortures
n his time
"On
Cruelty",
Of
Cannibals").
10
Hist.
eccl.,
,
p. 248;
Jean
Gueraud,
La
chronique
yonnaise
e
Jean
Gudraud,
ed.
Jean
Tricou
(Lyon, 1929), p. 151.
Other
examples:
Geneva,
Advent
1533,
a
young
man
interrupts
sermon
of
the
Catholic
theologian Guy Furbity,
"Messieurs,
listen...
I
will
put
myself
n the fireto
maintain
that all
he
has
said are lies
and
words
of
the
Antichrist";
"Into the
fire",
shout some
of the
congregation:
Jeanne
de
Jussie,
Le
levain du Calvinisme ou
commencemente
l'hdrdsie
e Genkve
Geneva,
1865), p.
74.
Rouen: a barber's
ourneyman
enies
at the end of a Franciscan's sermon
that there are seven
sacraments,
nsisting
that there re
only
two:
Hist.
eccl.,
,
p. 355.
Rouen,
March
1562
in
Hist.
eccl.,
iii, p. 713, n. I. Toulouse, 4 May 1562 in Bosquet, Histoire,p. 38. Provins,
1560,
Protestantsdisturb
a
Catholic sermon:
Haton,
Mimoires,
pp. 136-7.
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56
PAST AND
PRESENT
NUMBER
59
"Look",
cries
weaver
n
Tournai,
s he
seizes
heelevated
ost
rom
the
priest,
deceived
people,
do
you
believe
his s the
King,
Jesus
Christ, he trueGod and Saviour? Look " Andhe crumbles he
wafer
nd
escapes.
"Look",
says
a crowdof
mage-breakers
o the
people
of
Albiac n
I56i,
showing
hem
he
relics
hey
have seized
from
he
Carmelite
monastery,
look,
they
re
only
nimal
bones".11
And
the
slogan
of
the
Reformed rowds s
they
rush
through
he
streets
f
Paris,
of
Toulouse,
of La
Rochelle,
f
Angouleme
s
"The
Gospel
The
Gospel
Long
live
the
Gospel
"12
Catholic rowds
nswer
hiskind of
claim to truth n
Angers
by
taking
French
Bible,
well-bound nd
gilded,
eized n
the home
of
a rich
merchant,
nd
parading
t
through
he streets n
the end of
a halberd. "There's the truthhung. There's the truthof the
Huguenots,
he truth f
all the devils".
Then,
throwing
t
intothe
river,
There's the
truth f
all the devils
drowned".
And
if
the
Huguenot
octrine as
true,
why
idn't heLord come
nd savethem
from heir
killers?
So a
crowd of Orleans
Catholics
aunted ts
victims
n
1572:
"Where s
your
God?
Where re
your
prayers
nd
Psalms
Let him ave
you
fhe can".
Even the
dead weremadeto
speak
in
Normandy
nd
Provence,
where eaves of the
Protestant
Bible
were
tuffedntothe
mouths nd
woundsof
corpses. "They
preached hetruth ftheirGod. Let them all himtotheir
id".13
The same
refutation
as,
of
course,
open
to Protestants.
A
Protestant
rowd corners
baker
guarding
he
holy-wafer
ox in
Saint
Medard's
Church n
Paris n
1561.
"Messieurs",
he
pleads,
"do
not ouch
tfor he
honour
f
Him
whodwells ere". "Does
your
God of
paste protect
ou
now from he
pains
of
death?" was the
Protestant
nswerbefore
hey
killed
him.14
True
doctrine an be
defended n
sermon
r
speech,
backed
up by
the
magistrate's
word
against
he
heretic. Here
t
s
defended
y
dramatic
emonstration,
backed
up by
the violence f
the crowd.
11
JeanCrespin,Histoire desMartyrspersecutez t mis
ac
mort our la Verite
de
l'Evangile,
depuis
e
temps
es
Apostres
usques
a
present
1619),
ed. D.
Benoit,
3
vols.
(Toulouse,
1885-9),
i,
pp.
307-8.
Ibid.,
iii,
p.
515
for
similar
pisode
in
Flanders.
Hist.
eccl.,
,
p.
931.
12
Haton,
Mdmoires,
.
I82.
"Relations de
l'emeute
arriv6e
Toulouse en
1562",
in
L.
Cimber and
F.
Danjou
(eds.),
Archives urieuses e
l'histoire
e
France
(hereafter
Arch.
cur.) (Paris
and
Beauvais,
I834-40),
iv,
p. 347.
Hist.
eccl.,
iii,
p. 989. [Richard
Verstegen],
Thgatre
des
cruautds es
herdtiques
u
seizizme
sidcle,
contenant es cruautes
des
Schismatiques
d'Angleterre..
les
cruautes
des
Huguenots
n
France,
et les
barbaries ruellesdes CalvinistesGueux
aux
Pays-Bas.
Reproduction
u
texte ..
de
1588
(Lille,
1883),
p.
38.
13
Hist.
eccl.,
ii,
pp.
650-I;
"Massacres de ceux de la
Religion
'
Orl6ans",
Arch.
cur.,
vii,
p. 295.
Hist.
eccl.,
i,
p. 839
(Valognes),
iii,
p.
315
(Orange).
14
From the
memoirs of
Canon Bruslart of
Paris, quoted
in
Arch. cur.,iv, p. 57, n.I .
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8/42
RELIGIOUS
RIOT
IN
SIXTEENTH-CENTURY
RANCE
57
A more
frequent
oal
of
these
riots,however,
s
that
of
ridding
the
community
f dreaded
pollution.
The
word
"pollution"
is
often n the ipsoftheviolent,nd theconcept erveswell osumup
the
dangers
which rioters
aw in
the
dirty
nd diabolic
enemy.
A
priest
brings
rnamentsnd
objects
for
singing
he
Mass into a
Bordeaux
ail.
The Protestant
risoner
mashes hem
ll.
"Do
you
want o
blaspheme
heLord's
name
verywhere?
sn't t
enough
hat
the
temples
re defiled? Must
you
also
profane risons
o
nothing
is
unpolluted?"15
"The
Calvinists
ave
polluted
heir
hands with
every
ind f
acrilege
men an think
f",
writes Doctor
f
Theology
in
1562.
Not
long
after
t
the
Sainte
Chapelle,
man seizes
the
elevated
hostwith
his
"polluted
hands" and crushes t
under
foot.
The worshippers eat him up and deliverhim to the agentsof
Parlement.16
The
extent o
whichProtestantsould be
viewedas
vesselsof
pollution
s
suggested y
a
popular
belief bout the
origin
of the
nickname
Huguenots".
In
the
city
f
Tours,
e
roi
Huguet
("King
Huguet")
was the
generic
name for
ghosts
who,
nsteadof
spending
heir
ime
n
Purgatory,
amebackto rattle
oors
nd
haunt
and harm
people
at
night.
Protestants entout at
nights
o their
lascivious
onventicles,
nd so
the
priests
nd the
people
began
o
call
them
Huguenots
n Tours and then elsewhere. Protestants
ere,
thus, s sinisters thespirits f thedead,whom nehopedto settle
in their
ombs
n All Souls'
Day."7
One does not have to
listen
very
ong
to
sixteenth-century
oices
to hear the
evidence or he
uncleanlinessnd
profanation
f either
side. As for the
Protestants,
atholics
knew
that,
n
the
style
of
earlier
heretics,
hey
nuffed ut the candles and had
sexual nter-
course after
the
voluptuous
Psalmsinging
of their
nocturnal
conventicles.
When their ervices ecame
public,
t was no
better,
fortheir
Holy Supper
was
perceived in
the
wordsof a merchant-
draper
of
Lyon)
as disordered nd
drunken,
a
bacchanalia".18
15
Crespin,
Martyrs,
i, p.
470.
"1
Claude de
Sainctes,
Discours ur le
saccagement
es
Eglises
Catholiques, ar
les
Heretiques
ncienset nouveaux Calvinistes n
l'an
1562
(1563)
in
Arch.
cur.,
iv,
p.
368;
Haton, Mimoires,
p.
375.
11
Hist.
eccl.,
,
p.
308.
On
popular
attitudes
oward
ghosts
and
the souls
of
the
dead,
see Arnold
Van
Gennep,
Manuel
de
Folklore
Francais,
4
vols.
(Paris,
1943-58),
ii,
pp. 791-803;
Andr'
Varagnac,
Civilisation raditionnellet
genres
de
vie
(Paris,
1948),
ch.
7;
Roger
Vaultier,
Le
Folklore
endant
a
guerre
e Cent
Ans
d'apres
les Lettresde
Remission
u
Trdsor es Chartes
Paris,
1965), p.
80;
Keith
Thomas,
Religion
nd theDecline
of
Magic
(London,
1971),
PP. 587-606.
18
Haton,
Me'moires,
pp.
49-50,
and
p.
511
on
"incest"
among Huguenots,
spurred
on
by reading
the
Bible in French.
Crespin,
Martyrs,
ii,
p.
546.
Gabriel
de
Saconay, Genealogie
et
laT
Fin des
Huguenaux,
et descouverte
u
Calvinisme
Lyon,
1573),
fo. 68v, who cites a work
by
AntoineMochi, alias
(cont.
n
p.
58)
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58
PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER
59
But
t
was
not
ust
the
fleshly
icencewithwhich
hey
ived
whichwas
unclean,
ut the
things hey
aid
n
their
pestilential"
ooks nd
the
things heydid in hatredof theMass, the sacraments nd whole
Catholic
religion.
As the
representative
f
the
clergy
aid at the
Estates
of
Orleans,
he
heretics
ntended o leave
"no
place
in
the
Kingdom
which was
dedicated,
holy
and
sacred to
the
Lord,
but
would
only
profane
hurches,
emolish ltars nd break
mages".1"
The Protestants'enseof
Catholic
ollution
lso
stemmed
o some
extent rom
heir
exual
uncleanness,
ere
pecifically
f the
clergy.
Protestant
olemic
nevertired of
pointing
o the lewdnessof the
clergy
with
heir
concubines". It was rumoured
hat he Church
of
Lyon
had an
organization
f hundreds f
women,
ortof
temple
prostitutes,
t the
disposition
f
priests
nd
canons;
and an observer
pointed
ut with
isgust
ow,
fter heFirst
Religious
War,
he
Mass
and
the brothelre-enteredRouen
together.
One minister
ven
claimed that the
clergy
were for the most
part
Sodomites.20 But
more serious
than the
sexual
abominations
f
the
clergy
was
the
defilementf the sacred
by
Catholicritual
ife,
from
he
diabolic
magic
f
the Mass
to
the
dolatrous
orship
f
mages.
The Mass
is
"vile
filth";
no
people pollute
he House
of the
Lord
in
everyway
more
han
he
clergy".
Protestantonverts alked
f
their
wn
past
(note
8
cont.)
De
Mochares,
Apologie
contre
a Cene
Calvinique, printed
in
Paris
in
1558.
Gueraud,
Chronique, . 147.
Also,
note the reaction f the
Catholics Florimond
de Raemond and
Claude
de
Rubys
to
male
and female voices
joining
together
in
the Psalms: Florimond de
Raemond,
L'histoire
de la
naissance,
progrez
et
decadence
de
l'herdsie
de
ce
sikcle
Rouen, 1623),
p.
I,010;
Claude
de
Rubys,
Histoireveritable
e la
ville
de
Lyon
(Lyon,
1604),
pp. 390-I
("Leurs
chansons
Androgynes",
tc.).
19
Gentian
Hervet,
Discours
ur ce
que
les
pilleurs,
oleurs
t brusleurs
'Eglises
disent
qu'ils
n'en
veulent
qu'auz
Prestres.
Au
Peuple
de
Rheims,
t
des
environs
(Paris,
1563):
"The execrable words of diabolic
ministers",
pestilential
ittle
books full of poison"; Haton, Mbmoires,p. I5o; harangue of Canon Jean
Quintin
at
Orleans,
Dec.
I56o,
in Hist.
eccl.,
i,
p.
476.
Another
Catholic
quotation
expressing
these attitudes
and
fears
is:
"Nothing
remains
in the
churches.
The
impious
takes
away everything.
He
destroys,
e
overturns,
e
pollutes
all
holyplaces"
-
from he MS.
"De
tristibus
rancorum"
illustrated
with
pictures
of
the iconoclastic
Protestants of
Lyon
with
animal
heads:
Leopold
Niepce,
Monuments 'art de
la
Primatiale
de
Lyon,
ddtruits
u
aliends
pendant
'occupation rotestante
n
1562
(Lyon, 1881), pp.
16-17.
20
Le Cabinet
du
Roi de
France,
described
in
Jean-Jacques
Servais
and
Jean-Pierre
aurend,
Histoire
et dossierde la
prostitution
Paris, 1965),
p.
170.
Crespin,
Martyrs,
ii,
p. 324,
i,
PP. 385-90.
[Pierre
Viret],
Le Manuel
ou
Instruction es Curez
et
Vicaires
de
l'Eglise
Romaine
Lyon, 1564),
p.
137;
for
the dentificationf the author
of this work see R.
Linder,
The Political
deas
of
PierreViret Travaux d'humanismeet renaissance, xiv,Geneva, 1964),p. 189.
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RELIGIOUS RIOT IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY RANCE
59
lives as
a
time of
befoulment
nd dreaded
present
contamination"
from
Catholic hurches nd
rites.21
Pollutionwas a dangerous hing o suffern a community,rom
either Protestant
r a
Catholic
point
of
view,
for
t would
surely
provoke
he wrath
f
God. Terriblewind storms nd floods
were
sometimestaken
as
signs
of His
impatience
on this
count.22
Catholics,moreover,
ad also to
worry
bout
offending ary
nd
the
saints;
and
though
he
anxious,
xpiatory rocessions rganized
n
the
wake
of
Protestant
acrilege
might
emporarilyppease
them,
he
hereticswere
ure
to strike
gain.23
It
is
not
surprising,
hen,
hat
so
many
fthe actsof
violence
erformedy
Catholic nd
Protestant
crowds ave
as
we shall
ee more
ully
ater
n)
the
character
ither f
ritesofpurificationr of a paradoxical esecration,ntended o cut
down on uncleanness
y
placingprofane hings,
ike
chrism,
ack
n
the
profane
worldwhere
heybelonged.
This concern of
Catholic
and
Protestant
rowds
to
destroy
polluting
lements
s
reminiscentf
the insistence f
revolutionary
millenarian
movements
hat
the
wicked be exterminated
hat the
godly
may
rule. The
resemblance s
real,
but
is
limited.
Our
Catholicand
Protestant ioters
have a conviction ot so much of
their mmanent
odliness
s
of
the
rightness
f their
udgement,
envisage
ot o much
society
f
saints
s a
holier
ociety
f sinners.
21
Hist.
eccl., ,
p.
486;
"R6cit de
l'oeuvre
du
Seigneur
en
la
ville
de
Lyon
pour
action de
grace"
and
"Epigramme
du
Dieu des
papistes"
in Anatole de
Montaiglon
(ed.),
Recueil
de
podsies
rangoises
es XVe et
XVIe
sikcles
Paris,
1867),
vii, pp.
36-9,
42-5.
On
the loathsome
and
magical
aspects
of
the
Mass,
Antoine de
Marcourt,
Declaration de la
messe
(Neuchitel,
1534).
Les
cauteles,
canon et
ceremonies e la
messe
Lyon,
1564)
(see
n. 82
below).
Thomas,
Religion,
pp.
33-5.
Jean
Calvin,
Institution
e la
religion
hretienne,
ook
Iv,
para.
i8,
in
loannis Calvini
Opera
quae supersunt
mnia,
d. G.
Baum,
E.
Cunitz,
E.
Reuss,
57
vols.
(Brunswick,
1863-96),
iv,
col.
1,o77
(ces
villaines
ordures).
Calvin's
comments
on
the
"mire" of
his
earlier
life in the
Preface to his
Commentaries
on the
Psalms,
Commentaireur
le livre des
Pseaumes n
Opera
omnia,xxxi,col. 22. On thedangerof "pollution" and "contamination"fromCatholic
religious
ife,
Crespin,
Martyrs,
,
p. 563
and
Haton,
Mimoires,
pp.
407-8.
22
Haton,
Mdmoires,
p.
427-8;
[Jean
Ricaud],
Discours du massacre
de
ceux
de la
ReligionReformee,ait
&
yon par
les
catholiques
omains,
e
vingthuictieme
de moisde
aoat
et
ours
ensuivant e l'an
1572
(1574) (Lyon,
1847),
pp.
IIO-II
;
De
l'effroyable
t
merveilleux
esbord de
la
riviare du Rhosne en
1570
(first
published
Lyon, 1576; Lyon,
1848 edn.),
p.
6.
23
There were
expiatory
rocessions
n
Paris
in the
wake of "execrable
crimes"
against
religious
tatues
n
1528,
1547,
1550,
1551,
1554
and
1562,
described
n
Le
Journal
d'un
bourgeois
e
Paris sous le
rdgne
e
Franfois
er
(1515-1536),
ed.
V.
L.
Bourrilly
Paris,
I9Io),
pp. 290-4;
M.
F6libien
and
G.
A.
Lobineau,
Histoirede la
ville
de
Paris
(Paris, 1725),
iv,
pp. 676-9,
728,
748, 755, 765,
804-5;
Arch.
cur., v,
pp.
99-102.
Note
also the
expiatory
rocession
n
Lyon
after n
iconoclasticoutrage n 1553 in Gueraud, Chronique, p. 65-6.
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60
PAST AND PRESENT
NUMBER
59
For
Catholic
zealots,
the
exterminationf the heretical
vermin"
promised
the restoration f
unity
to the
body
social
and the
guaranteef ts traditionaloundaries:
And et us all
say
n
unison:
Long
ive the Catholic
eligion
Long
live the
King
and
good
parishioners,
Long
ive faithful
arisians,
And
may
t
always
ome
to
pass
That
every
erson
oes
to
Mass,
One
God,
one
Faith,
ne
King.24
For Protestant
ealots,
he
purging
f
the
priestly
vermin"
romised
the creation f a new
kind
of
unity
within he
body
social,
all
the
tighter
ecausefalse
ods
nd monkish
ects
would
no
onger
ivide t.
Relationswithinhe ocialorderwouldbepurer,oo,forewdness nd
love
of
gain
would
be limited.
As
was
said of
Lyon
after
ts
"deliverance" n
1562:
Lyon
has
changed
ndeed...
The
profit
f
Mercury,
he
danceof Venus
And
presumption,
oo,
each
man has
left
side.
And
again:
When his own o
vain
Was filled
With
dolatry
nd
dealings
Of
usury
nd
ewdness,
It
had clerics
nd merchants
plenty.
But
once t
was
purged
And
changed
By
theWordof
God,
That
brood
f
vipers
Could
hope
no more
To
live n
so
holy
place.25
"4
Et dirons ous
d'une
bonne
unyon:/Vive
a
catholicque
eligion/
ive e
Roy
et
es bons
parroyssiens,/
ive
fidelles
arisiens,/
t
jusques
tant
n'ayons
cesse/ ue
chascun
ille
A
a
messe/
n
Dieu,
une
Foy,
un
Roy":
"Dl1uge
des
Huguenotz
aict
A
aris"
n
Arch.
ur., ii,
p.
259.
On Protestants
s
"vermin",
Gu6raud,
Chronique, . 141; Saconay,
Genealogie,
p.
64a;
Claude
de
Rubys,
Histoireveritable, . 404.
I have tried n this
paragraph
o
generalize
sthbe's
mportant
nsight
n
regard
o
the
popular spect
f
the
Saint
Bartholomew's
ay
massacres:
hat
the
Protestants
ppeared
s
"profaners"
pp. 194-5).
There eems
o
me
very
little
vidence,
owever,
hatthe Catholickillers
wished o
exterminate
a
foreign
ace"
p.
197).
This
exaggerates
nd
misreads
heevidence
n
regard
to
the
killing
f
pregnant
omen
nd the
astration
f males
see
below,
p.
78,
82-3
and n.
87).
Heretics
were
hated
for
polluting
nd
disorderly
ctions,
not
s
a
"race";
and
the
rowds ometimes
orced
hem
ackto
theMass
rather
than
killing
hem.
25
"Lyon
est
bien
change...
/De
Mercure
e
gain,
& de
Venus
a
dance/
Tout
homme
delaiss6,
&
toute
outrecuidance":
glogue
e
deux
Bergers,
Demonstrant
omme a
ville
de
Lyon
a
estd
reduite
a la
Religion
vrayement
Chrestienne,
ar
la
pure
predication
e
l'Evangile
(Lyon,
1564),
A
4r.
"Quand
cesteville ant aine/stoit leine/ 'idolatrie tprocks/'usureetdepaillar-
(cont.
n
.
61)
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RELIGIOUS
IOT N
SIXTEENTH-CENTURYRANCE
61
Crowds
might
efend
ruth,
nd
crowds
might
urify,
ut there
was also a thirdaspect to the religiousriot - a politicalone.
E. P.
Thompson
has
shownhow
n
the
eighteenth-centurynglish
food-riot,
he crowd's behaviourwas
legitimated
y
a
widely
held
belief
hat t
was
acting
n
place
of
the
government.
f
the
ustices
of
the
peace
failed
o do their
egal
duty
n
guaranteeing
he
food
supply,
hen he crowdwould
carry
ut the
provisions
f the Assize
for
them."2
I
have
found he
same
thing
o
be
true,
t
least s
far
as
the
menu
euple
"the
little
people")
are
concerned,
n the
great
grain-riot,
r
Grande
Rebeine,
f
Lyon
in
1529.
Under
the
slogan,
"The communes rising gainst he hoarders fgrain", hecrowd
met
on
the
grounds
where
municipal
ssemblies ere
ordinarily
eld
and
then went about
opening
the
municipal
granary
nd
seizing
grain
from
wealthy
eople
with
ample
supplies,
ctionswhichthe
city
ouncilhad
undertaken
n
the
past,
buthad failed
o do
promptly
during
he current
risis. In
the
grain-riot
f
Provins n
1573,
the
artisans eized
grain
that
had been
sold
at
a
high price
to non-
residents
f
the
city
because the civic
authorities
ad failed
to
provision
he town t an
honest
price.27
Now
we
can
deduce
omeof
he ameassumptionsrom he ctionsof the
religious
rowdsof the mid-sixteenth
entury.
When
the
magistrate
ad
not used his
sword
o
defend
he
faith nd the true
church nd to
punish
he
dolators,
hen he
crowdwould do it for
him.
Thus,
many
religious
isturbances
egin
with he
ringing
f
the
tocsin,
s in a time of
civic
assembly
r
emergency.
Some
riots end
with the
marching
f the
religious "wrongdoers"
on
the
other
ide
to
jail.
In
1561,
for
nstance,
arisian
Calvinists,
(note
25
cont.)
dise/
lercs t
marchansut
asses./
Mais si
tost
u'en
fut
purgee/
t
changee/Par a Parolle eDieu:/Cette ngence evipere/lusn'espere/'habiter n si
sainct ieu":
Antoine
u
Plain,
De
l'assistance
ue
Dieu
a Faite son
Eglise
de
Lyon"
in H.
L.
Bordier
ed.),
Le
chansonnier
uguenot
u XVIe
sizcle
Paris,
1870),p.
221.
On
Catholic
lergy
s
"vermin",
ee Discours
e la
vermine
t
prestraille
e
Lyon,
dechasse
ar
le bras
ort
du
Seigneur,
vec la
retraicte
es
moines...
Par
E.P.C.
(1562)
in
Montaiglon,
ecueil,
iii,
pp. 24-45.
For
the
theory
n
this
paragraph,
have found
helpfulMary Douglas's
remarks
n the relation
between
pollution
fears
and
concernfor
social
boundaries
Purity
nd
Danger,
n
Analysis f
Conceptsf
Pollutionnd
Taboo
[London,
1966],
ch.
7)
and the
definitions
y
Neil
J.
Smelser f "value-
oriented
movements"
Theory f
Collective
ehavior,
p. 120-9
nd ch.
x).
6
Thompson,
Moral
Economy",
p.
91-115.
27
The essential ocuments n the Rebeine re reprintedn M. C. andG.
Guigue,
ibliothBque
istorique
u
yonnais
Lyon,1886);
andontheProvins
riot
n
Haton, Mgmoires,
p.
714-25.
For the
relation f the
food-rioto
governmental
ction
in
France in
the late seventeenth nd
eighteenth
centuries,
ee
Louise
Tilly,
The
Food
Riot as
a
Form
of Political
onflict
n
France",
Ji.
of
nterdisciplinary
istory,
i
(1971),
pp.
23-57.
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62
PAST
AND PRESENT
NUMBER
59
fearing
hatthe
priests
nd
worshippers
n
Saint
M6dard's
Church
were
organizing
n
assault n their ervices
n the Patriarche
arden
next
door,
first
ioted
n
Saint
M6dard
and
then
eized some
fifteen
Catholics s "mutinous"nd ed them ff,bound ike
galley-slaves",
to the Chitelet
rison.28
If
the Catholic
killing
f
Huguenots
as
in
some
ways
he
form f
a rite f
purification,
t
also sometimes
as the form f
mitating
he
magistrate.
The mass executions
f Protestants
t Merindol
and
Cabrieresn Provence
nd at
Meaux
n
the
540s,
duly
rdered
y
the
Parlements
f
Aix
and
of Paris
as
punishment
or
heresy
nd
high
treason,
nticipate
rowd
massacres
f
ater
ecades.
The Protestants
themselves
ensed his:
the
devil,
nable
o
extinguish
he
ight
fthe
Gospel through he sentences f judges,now tried to obscure t
through
uriouswar
and
a murderous
opulace.
Whereasbefore
they
were
made
martyrs
y
one
executioner,
ow
t
s
at
thehands
of
"infinite
umbers f
them,
nd
the swords f
private
ersons
have
become
he
itigants,
itnesses,
udges,
decrees
nd executors
f the
strangest
ruelties".29
Similarly,
fficial
cts
of torture
nd
official
cts
of desecration
f
the
corpses
f
certain
riminals
nticipate
ome
of
the
acts
performed
by
riotous
rowds.
The
public
xecution
was,
of
course,
dramatic
and well-attended
vent
n
the
sixteenth
entury,
nd the
wood-cut
andengravingocumentedhe cenefar nd wide. Therethe rowd
might
ee
the
offendingongue
f the
blasphemer
ierced
r
slit,
he
offending
ands
of
the
desecrator
ut
off.
There
the
crowdcould
watch he
raitor
ecapitated
nd
disemboweled,
is
corpse
uartered
and the
parts
borne
ff
or
public
display
n
different
ections
f the
town.
The
body
of
an
especially
heinous criminal
was
dragged
through
he
streets,
ttached
to a
horse's
tail.
The
image
of
exemplary
oyal
punishment
ived on
for
weeks,
ven
years,
s
the
corpses
of murderers
were
exposed
on
gallows
or
wheels
and
the
heads
of
rebels
n
posts.30
We
are
not
surprised
o
learn, hen,
2,
Histoire veritable
de
la
mutinerie,
umulte
t
sedition,
aite par
les
Prestres
Sainct
Medard,
contre
es
Fideles,
le
Samedy
XXVII iour
de
December
1562
[sic
for
1561]
in Arch.
cur., v,
p.
55;
memoirs
of
Canon
Bruslart,
Arch.
cur.,
iv,
p.
57,
n.
I;
Haton,
Mdmoires,
.
181.
On Toulouse
Catholic
crowds
eading
Protestants
o
prison,
see
Hist.
eccl., ii,
pp.
17-18.
19
Crespin,
Martyrs,
,
pp.
381-418, 494-500,
iii,
p.
639.
a0
Samuel
Y.
Edgerton,
Jr.,
"Maniera
and the
Mannaia:
Decorum
and
Decapitation
in
the Sixteenth
Century",
n F. W.
Robinson
and S.
G.
Nichols,
Jr.
(eds.),
The
Meaning
of
Mannerism
Hanover,
N.H.,
1972),
pp. 67-103;
Journal
d'un
bourgeois,
p.
229,
373,
384-5;
Claude
Bellibvre,
Souvenirs
de
voyages
en
Italie
et
en Orient.
Notes
historiques,
d.
C. Perrat
Geneva,
1956),
p. 26, n. 27; Haton, Mimoires,p. 375; Gueraud, Chronique, p. 28-9;
Pierre
de
(cont.
n .63)
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RELIGIOUS
IOT N
SIXTEENTH-CENTURY
RANCE
63
that he
body
of
Admiral
oligny
ad
already
een thrown ut ofthe
window
by
the
king's
men and
stoned
by
the
Duc
de Guise hours
beforethe
popular
attackson it
began
in
1572.
Furthermore,
crowds ften
ook
their
victims
o
places
of official
xecution,
s in
Paris
in
1562,
when
the
Protestant
rinter,
Roc Le
Frere,
was
dragged
or
burning
o
the Marche
aux
Pourceaux,
nd in Toulouse
the same
year,
when a
merchant,
lain in front f a
church,
was
dragged
for
burning
o
the town
hall.
"The
King
salutes
you",
said a Catholic rowd
n
Orleans
o a Protestant
rader,
hen
ut
cord
aroundhis
neck
as
official
gents
might
o,
and led him off o be
killed.31
Riots also occurredn connectionwith udicial cases, either o
hurry
he
udgement long,
or
when
verdicts
n
religious
ases
were
considered
oo
severe
or too
lenient
y
"the
voice of
the
people".32
Thus in
1569
n
Montpellier,
Catholic
rowd
forced
he
udge
to
condemn n
important uguenot risoner
o
death
n
a
hasty
trial",
then eized
him
and
hanged
him n
front
f his house. In
1551
a
masked Protestant
roup kidnapped
and released a
goldsmith's
journeyman,
ho had been condemned
n
Lyon
for
heresy
nd was
being
removed
to Paris. And in
1561
in
Marsillargues,
when
prisonersorheresywerereleased y royaldecree, Catholic rowd
"rearrested"
hem,
nd executed nd
burned hem
n
the
streets.33
The
most
fascinatingxample
f the
assumption
f
the
magistrate's
(note
30
cont.)
L'Estoile,
Medmoires-journaux,
d. Brunet t
al.,
12
vols.
(Paris,
1888-96),
i,
pp.
323-4;
F. A. Isambert
t
l.
(eds.),
Recueil
gendral
es nciennes
ois
ranfaises
(Paris,1822),
xii,
nos.
115,
210, xiii,
nos.
18,
90;
Edme
de la
Poix
de
Fremin-
ville,
Dictionnaireu
traite'
e la
police
nderale
es
villes,
ourgs,aroisses
t
seigneuries
e la
campagneParis,
758),pp.
56,
171;
Le
Roy
Ladurie,
aysans,
p.
5o6;
Roland
Mousnier,
'assassinat 'Henri
V
(Paris,
1964),
pp.
32-4;
A. Allard,Histoire e la justice riminelleu seiziemeikcleGhent, 868), pp.
333-4.
31
Hist.
ccl.,
i,
p. 175.
FortheMarche ux
Pourceaux
s a
place
f xecution
for
heretics,
ee the
Journal
'un
bourgeois,
p. 384-5.
Bosquet,
Histoire,
p. 38.
32
L'Estoile,
Mimoires-journaux,
i,
p.
85
(describing
ere the
freeing
y
a
Parisian rowd
of a man
condemned o
death for
mpregnating young
woman).
33
JeanPhilippi,
Mldmoires
n
Nouvelle ollectionesMemoires
our
ervir
l'histoire
e
France,
d.
Michaud and
Poujoulat
Paris,
1838),
viii,
p. 634.
Crespin,Martyrs,
i,
p.
37;
Hist.
eccl.,
,
p.
983.
In
Rouen,
Catholic
rowd
of
1563 pressured
the Parlement to condemn
Protestants
o
death;
a
Catholic
crowd
of
1571, having
had some of its members rrested or
killing
Protestants,
broke nto theprison nd freed hem:Hist.eccl., i, p. 792,n. I; Crespin,
Martyrs,
ii,
pp. 662-3.
For
two
xamples
f
Catholic
rowds
eizing
rom he
gallows
female heretics who
had
been condemned
merely
to be
hanged,
and
burning
hem
nstead,
ee
Hist.
eccl.,
ii,
pp. 43-4
and
L'Estoile,
Memoires-
journaux,
ii,
p.
166.
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64
PAST
AND
PRESENT
NUMBER
59
r61e
y
a
crowd,
owever,
s
themock
rial
y
the
boys
of
Provins n
Champagne
n October
1572.
A
Huguenot
had been
hanged
for
theftsndkillingsommitteduring hereligiousroubles. Groups
of
boysputropes
roundhis neck
nd his
feet,
ut
a
tug-of-war
ould
not
resolvewhich
way
he
corpse
was
to
be
dragged.
The
boys
hen
elected
awyers
nd
udges
from
mong
heir
midst
or
trial. Before
the
eyes
of a hundred
pectators,hey
rgued
he
penalty,
ppealing
from
hedecision f
thereal
udge
that he
Huguenot
e
onlyhanged
and
not burned
alive. After he
boys'
decision,
the
corpse
was
dragged
hrough
he streets
y
the feet nd
burned.34
The seizure
f
religious
uildings
nd
the
destruction
f
mages
y
Calvinist
rowds
were also
accomplished
with the conviction hat
they
were
aking
n the
r61e
ftheauthorities.WhenProtestantsn
Montpellier ccupied
church
n
1561,
hey
rgued
hat
he
building
belonged
o
them
lready,
ince ts
clergy
ad been
wholly
upported
by
merchants
nd
burghers
n
the
past
and
the
property
elonged
o
the own.
In
Agen
he ame
year,
withReformed
inisters
reaching
that
t was
theoffice f the
magistrate
loneto
eradicate he
marks
f
idolatry,
rotestantrtisans ecided ne
night
hat
if
one tarried
or
the
Consistory,
t
would never
be done"
and
proceeded
o break
into
the
churches
nd
destroy
ll the altars nd
images.35
To be sure, the relationof a FrenchCalvinist rowdto the
magisterial
odel s different
rom
hat
f a FrenchCatholic
rowd.
The
king
ad not
yet
hastised he
lergy
nd
"put
ll
ydolatry
o
ruyne
and
confusyon",
s Protestants
ad
been
urging
im since
the
early
1530s.3.
Calvinist
rowdswere
using
his sword as the
king
ought
to have
been
using
t and as some
princes
nd
city
ouncils
utside f
France had
already
sed it. Within he
kingdom
efore
560 city
councils
had
only
ndicated
he
right
path,
s
they
et
up
municipal
schools,
ay-controlled
elfare
ystems
r
otherwiseimited he
phere
of action
of the
clergy.37
During
the next
years,
s revolutionnd
conversionreatedReformedity ouncils ndgovernorssuchas the
34
Haton, Mimoires,
pp. 704-6.
The
boys
were
aged
twelve
or
younger,
according
to
Haton.
3"
Hist.
eccl.,
,
pp.
970,
889.
3-
Antoine
de
Marcourt,
The booke
of
Marchauntes
London, 1547),
C
iv-iir
The Livre des
Marchandswas first
ublished
n
Neuchatel
in
1533.
Antoine
de
Marcourt,
A
declaration
f
the
masse,
he
ruyte
hereof,
hecause and the
meane,
wherefore
nd
howe
it
oughte
to be
maynteynedWittenberg:
Hans
Luft
[sic,
for
London,
John
Day],
I547),
D
ivV,
conclusion
written
by
Pierre
Viret.
Marcourt's work
first
ppeared
in French at Neuchitel in
1534.
37
Municipal
schools
in
Toulouse,
Lyon
and
Nimes
among
other
places,
and
urban welfare
systems
n
Paris,
Rouen,
Lyon, Troyes,
Toulouse
and
other
cities. See N. Z. Davis, "Poor Relief,Humanism and Heresy: The Case of
Lyon",
Studies n
Medieval and Renaissance
History,
(1968),
pp.
216-75.
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16/42
RELIGIOUS IOT N SIXTEENTH-CENTURYRANCE
65
Queen
of
Navarre)
within
rance,
Calvinist rowds
inally
ad local
magistrates
hoseactions
hey
ould
prompt
r
imitate.
In general,hen, he crowds nreligious iots n sixteenth-century
France can be seen as
sometimes
cting
out
clerical
r6les
-
defending
rue
doctrine
r
ridding
he
community
f
defilementn
a violent ersion f
priest
r
prophet
and as sometimes
cting
ut
magisterial
1les.
Clearly
some riotous
behaviour,
uch as
the
extensive
illaging
one
by
bothProtestantsnd
Catholics,
annot e
subsumed
under hese
heads;
but
ust
as the
prevalence
f
pillaging
in a war does
not
prevent
s from
yping
t as a
holy
war,
so
the
prevalence
f
pillaging
n
a
riot houldnot
prevent
s
from
eeing
t
as
essentiallyeligious.
II
What
evermade
the
people
think
hey
ould
rightfully
ssume
he
r6les
of
priest,
pastor
and
magistrate?
Like
other
Catholic
writers,
when the
Jesuit
Emond
Auger
composed
his
Pedagogue
d'Armes n
1568
to
urge
a
holy
war to
exterminatehe
heretics,
e
addressed
is
nstruction
nly
o Charles
X.38
Like other
Reformed
preachers,
astorPierre
Viret old his flock
hat
private
ndividuals
should never
ake
t
upon
themselveso
stop public
scandalsunder
coverofhaving ome"extraordinaryocation". There was noway
thatone
could
get
certain vidence rom
Scripture
o show
that
particular
rivate
ndividual
ad
such
a
calling,
nd
everything
as
best
left
to those who held
political
power.39
When
Protestant
resistance
heory
was
fully
eveloped
t
too never
onceded
clear
right
f violent isobedience
o
private ersons.40
Nor were
ecular
authorities
n
sixteenth-century
ities n the
habit
f
telling
he "little
people"
that
they
had a
right
o riotwhen
they
felt ike
t.
Yet the crowdsdid
riot,
nd there re
remarkably
ew
nstances
reported
of
remorse on
the
part
of
participants
n
religious
disturbances. Of the many Catholic murderersmentioned n
38
Emond
Auger,
Le
Pedagogue
d'Armes.
Pour
instruire
n
Prince
Chrestien
bien
entreprendre
t heureusementcheverune
bonne
uerre,
our
estre
victorieux
de tous
es ennemis e son
Estat,
et
de
L'Eglise
Catholique.
Dedie au
Roy,
Par
M.
Emond,
de la
Compagnie
de lesus
(Paris,
1568),
especially
fos.
18r-24v.
9
Letter
from
Pierre Viret to the
Colloque
de
Montpellier, 5
Jan.
1562
in
Hist.
eccl.,
i,
pp.
975-7.
Pierre
Viret,
L'Interim,
Fait
par Dialogues
(Lyon,
I565),
PP.
396-7.
Linder,
Political
deas,
pp.
137-8.
Robert
Kingdon,
Geneva
and the Consolidation
f
the
FrenchProtestant
Movement
Madison,
Wis.,
1967),
pp.
153-5.
40
See,
for
nstance,
the Vindiciae
contra
Tyrannos
trans.
by
J.
H.
Franklin)
on this subject in J. H. Franklin ed.), Constitutionalismnd Resistance n the
Sixteenth
Century New
York,
1969),
pp.
154-6.
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17/42
66 PAST AND PRESENT
NUMBER
59
Crespin's
Book
of
Martyrs,
nly
hreewere aid to have fallen
ll
in
thewake ftheir eeds, o have becomemad anddied nvokingevils
or
denying
God.
Leading
killers
n the
Lyon Vespers
of
1572
exhibited
heir
bloodypourpoints
n the streets nd
bragged
f the
numbers
hey
ad
slain;
their
ubsequent
bsolution
y
a
papal egate
appears
formal,
olitical
ffair.
In
cases
where
rotestantseturned
to Mother
Church,
there
may
well have been some
regret
for
smashing
tatues r
assaulting riests,
uthere
nly
s
part
of whole
pattern
f
"heretical"
behaviour. So
long
as rioters
maintained
given
religious
ommitment,
hey rarelydisplayedguilt
or
shame
for heir iolence. By every ign, he crowdsbelieved heir ctions
legitimate.41
One reason or his onviction
s
that
n
some,
hough y
no
means
all,
religious
iots,
lerics nd
political
fficers
ere
ctive
members
of
the
crowd,
hough
ot
precisely
n their
fficial
apacity.
In
Lyon
in
1562,
Pastor
Jean
Ruffy
ook
part
n
the
sack
of the
Cathedral
f
Saint
Jean
with
sword n
his
hand.42 Catholic
riests
eem
o
have
been n
quite
a few
disturbances,
s in
Rouen
n
1560,
when
priests
and
parishioners
n
a
Corpus
Christi
arade
broke nto
he housesof
Protestants
ho had
refused
o do the
processionhonour.43 Inother
ases,
the
clergy
was said to havebeen
busy
behind hescenes
organizing
he
crowds.44)
At Aix a
band
of
Catholic
rioterswas
headed
by
the First Consul of
that
ity,
while t
Lyon
in
1562
the
merchant-publisher
nd
Consul, Jean
de
La
Porte,
ed
a
Protestant
41
Crespin,
Martyrs, ii,
pp.
694, 701,
711-12
and
717.
The
infrequency
f
these tales
of
remorse
s all the
more
significant
ecause
they
could be used so
readily by
Protestants
o show the
just
punishment
of
God:
cf. Hist.
eccl.,
i,
p.
357.
Pastor
Jean
Ruffy, ormally
ebuked
by
Calvin
for
hisr6le
in
an
iconoclastic
riot n
Lyon
in
1562
(Robert
Kingdon,
Geneva and the
Coming
f
the
WarsofReligionn France,1555-1563 [Geneva, 1956],p. IIo), led a Protestant
crowd
against dancing
Catholics
in
1565
(de
Rubys,
Histoire,
p.
406).
On
ambivalence
about disobedience and
violent
behaviourthat
might
be embedded
deep
in the
feelings
f
rioters,
have no evidence one
way
or the other.
42Gueraud,
Chronique, p. 155;
Charles
Du
Moulin,
Omnia...
Opera,
5
vols.
(Paris,
I68I),
v,
p.
618;
Kingdon,
Geneva
and the
Coming, .
Iio.
43
Hist.
eccl., ,
p.
352.
For other
llegations
hat
priests
ook
part
n
Catholic
riots n
Toulouse,
1562
(ibid.,
iii,
pp.
4-5);
in
Lavaur, 156I (i,
pp.
938-9);
in
Clermont
in
Auvergne, 1568, Crespin, Martyrs,
iii,
p. 651.
Also see
the
comments
of
the
priest
Claude Haton
about
brawling
priests
with swords
in
their
hands,
Mdmoires,
p.
17-18.
44
For
instance,
priests
t Nemours were said
to have
helped plan
an
attack
n
Protestantshere n 156I, and Dominicans atRevel areallegedto haveorganizedan attack on
Psalm-singers
he same
year:
Hist.
eccl.,
,
pp. 833-4,
959.
The
bishop
of Autun was accused
of
organizinggroups
of artisans
to exterminate
Protestants
n
that
city
n
1562,
and Cardinal
Strozzi,
the
bishop
of
Albi,
was
supposed
to have
helped
to