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pattern that would be repeated in each subsequent war over the next four decades: a military
campaign in which neither side could defeat the other definitively was followed by a
compromise peace that the crown could neither administer nor enforce. 15
The next major stage in the development of the division between Catholics occurred in
the years following the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre. One of the most infamous events of
the Wars of Religion, the massacre was touched off by a failed attempt in Paris on 22 August
1572 to assassinate Admiral Coligny, the leader of the Huguenots. 16 In response to the attack on
their leader’s life the Huguenots demanded retribution, which was quickly misinterpreted as a
royal threat, provoking the crown to launch a pre-emptive strike on prominent Protestant leaders
in the capital. 17 As the king’s guards carried out the orders during the night of 23 August, the
Catholic populace took the directive as royal consent to murder all members of the Reformed
faith, sparking a week of violence in which Catholics killed up to three thousand Protestants of
all ages and social classes. By mid-September the riot had spread to at least eight major
provincial cities and possibly took another seven thousand lives. 18
Apart from a dramatic decrease in membership in the Reformed churches, the years
following the massacre witnessed the emergence of two approaches among Catholics to deal
with the Protestants. The first of these was advocated by the moderates. Never an officially
organized political party, they were more concerned with the survival of the French state than
religious unity. 19 Composed mainly of royalist-leaning jurists, theologians, and statesmen, the
moderates recognized that religious divisions were hurting the country by causing a seemingly
endless cycle of civil war. Seeking to maintain the monarchy’s established policy of moderation,
they certainly believed that the Reformed religion was heretical but were willing to tolerate
Protestantism until peace could be established in the country.
The second approach belonged to the conservatives, who wanted to deny Protestants any
form of religious freedom. This group developed a militant component in June 1584 following
the death of Francis, duke of Anjou, younger brother of the childless King Henri III (1574-1589)
and next in line for the throne. 20 His death made Henri de Bourbon, first prince of the blood, the
closest heir to the French crown. For the militant Catholics, the problem with this situation was
that Henri de Bourbon was a Protestant and the Huguenots’ most powerful military leader. With
the urging of prominent nobles, a Catholic association known as the League sprang up across
France with the intention of extirpating the Protestants and avoiding a heretical king. 21
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