BARTHOLOMEW, ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY. — It is one of the episodes, perhaps the cruelest, that stained France during the Wars of Religion. Besides the fierce fanaticism of Huguenot propaganda, the slaughter was chiefly brought about by the antagonism between the two factions into which the French high nobility was divided in its struggle for supremacy in the kingdom. One of these, that of the Guise, posed as the champion of Catholicism; the other, represented by the Condés and the Bourbons, favored the Huguenots, more for political aims than for religious conviction. King Charles IX and his mother Catherine de' Medici, though desirous of Catholic victory, were particularly concerned not to be overwhelmed by either of the contending parties. After the conclusion of the Third War of Religion with the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in August 1570, by which the Huguenots obtained full tolerance throughout the kingdom and, as a pledge, four strongholds of security, the blandishments of Gaspard II de Coligny, leader of the Huguenots, began to be felt.
The belief spread in Rome that the blow had saved the dynasty and Catholicism in France, and public thanksgiving prayers were therefore ordered, a medal was struck, and a commemorative fresco was painted in the Sala Regia of the Vatican Palace, with the hope that France might now be purged of the poison of heresy.