The Huguenot Bartholomew Dupuy and his descendants

.
introd . was
22 BISE AND PKOGRESS OF HUGUENOTS.
offered to each. In other parts
of France
1545. similar executions were made, which exhibited
the fiendish spirit of men torments of
glorying in
their fellow-men, and also
the
the
triumph of devout faith over death.
From this time forth, Francis I. strove to be
absolute Monarch of both church and state,
and legislation became more systematically
severe. Only two other martjrrdoms need be
mentioned which occurred during his reign.
1545. In 1545 the Waldenses, living on the river
^gg^g®°" Durance in Southeast France, were horribly
Mar- massacred by an armed expedition fitted out
tyred. ^^ ^-^^ with the couscut of the King. Twentytwo
towns and villages were burned to ashes,
four thousand persons murdered, and multitudes
of little children were suffered to
perish after their parents had fallen. About
four thousand persons sought refuge in flight,
and returned afterwards to their old abodes,
but to live on in a pitiable state. These mountaineers
were massacred for the same reasons
as the Reformed had been— their faith in the
1546.
sufficiency of the Scriptures.
The next year witnessed the martyrdom of
the ''Fourteen at Meaux.'* In that city the
building in which the reformed doctrines had
been preached with success was destroyed,
and another erected on the same site in which
mass was celebrated. Fourteen of the people
who used to worship in the former building
were seized and refusing to abjure their faith
were committed to the flames.
1547- Francis I. died May 31, 1547, and his bigoted
Frlndsl^^f^ licentious son, Henry II., succeeded him.
and Henry was a chip of the old block, though of
Son "f ^^^^ mental and physical ability. Having
Henry II. married Catherine de Medici, niece of Pope