davis the rites of violence- religious riot in 16th cent france

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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2/42

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withdrawn he inhabitants f their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.



4/42

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).



5/42

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).



6/42

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.



7/42

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 .



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)



9/42

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.



10/42

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.



11/42

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)



12/42

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.


13/42

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)



14/42

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.


15/42

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.



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.



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

davis the rites of violence- religious riot in 16th cent france

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