Beneath the Cross: Catholics and Huguenots In Sixteenth Century France

Barbara B. Diefendorf, a distinguished historian, narrates the dismantlets prior to the St. Bartholomews Day Massacre in France. The St. Bartholomews Day Massacre was a way for the ruling French monarchy to dispose or eliminate all Huguenots in France. After the Protestant Reformation in Germany, there was a diversification of the Protestant faith all over Europe. In Switzerland, Zwingli established a sect that mixed Orthodox Catholicism and Lutheranism. In England, Henry VIII declare himself as the supreme head of the church of England, without changing traditional elements of Catholic faith.In Geneva, a zealous preacher, seat Calvin, taught the doctrine of predestination. According to this doctrine, before a man is born, his soul was ordained by God to be in either heaven or hell. Man, even by his own freewill, cannot change his destination. Thus, in vow to assail his own salvation, he must show to the world that he is destined to heaven. The trajectory of life, match to Calv in, is cloaked with uncertainty of the afterlife. This doctrine shocked the even Calvins Protestant contemporaries, notably Luther and Zwingli.The Pope even agreed with other Protestant leaders that such faith could not be Christian or borne out of Christ-centered faith. Thus, the first seed of persecution was released. Among all Protestant faiths, Calvinism suffered the longest and most brutal persecution. Other factors to a fault contributed to the Calvinist persecution in Europe (especially in France). Among were as follows 1) The Huguenots were able to acquire political and economic antecedent (thus assuming significance in European affairs 2) The new faith rejected the absolute world power of the monarchy.It proposed a new social system that relies heavily on communalism and brotherhood 3) And, pressure from the Papacy hale Catholic countries to realign their policies toward traditional faith and social system (this was a reactionary move to the ideals of Calvinism). master( prenominal) Theme of the Book In the book, the main theme can be summed up as the slack toleration of Huguenots in France generally resulted to increasing persecution of the adherents of Calvinism (although Huguenots comprised only 5% of the French population).The resulting struggle between Catholics and Huguenots was cognize as The Wars of Religion. For more than two centuries, France was the scene of legal and military struggle between the two factions, until carmine Richelieu (the regent of Louis XIII) and King Louis XIV destroyed the last bastions of Huguenots in France. The main theme is shooterdivided into three sub themes. Here are as follows 1) The first stage of the conflict (from 1557 to 1563) was characterized by breakdown of order in the city of Paris.The Huguenots were initially granted toleration in the Edict of Amboise 2) The second stage (from 1563 to 1577) was seen as the initial criss-cross theological battle of Catholic and Huguenot theologians in some of Eur opes prestigious universities. Catholic theologians were guide by the Jesuits. Huguenot professors were headed by the first students of Calvin 3) The third stage (from 1567 to 1572) was provoked by religious discontent of some(prenominal) Catholics and Huguenots.Catholics (especially the nobility and the French monarchy) wanted the deterioration of the economic and political power of the Huguenots. The Huguenots demanded more toleration (the fount of more districts for Huguenot worship and the removal of Huguenot books from the list of forbidden books). This was the period prior to the St. Bartholomews Massacre. Results Many Catholics in France felt that the degree of toleration granted to the Huguenots (the followers of Calvin) was more than enough to destroy the authority of the Church and the Catholic monarchy.There was an increasing call among traditionalists to destroy the very foundation of Calvinism their worship districts. Admiral Coligny, the leader of the Huguenots, was sternly wounded after an assassination. Several clashes between Catholic and Huguenots were notably in most of Frances major cities. On the night of august 23, a decision was taken at the Louvre to kill Coligny and the wide Huguenot hierarchy. Catherine de Medici, the mother queen, forced his son Charles IX to sign the order. Thus the infamous massacre in narration finally came.Generally, the result of The Wars of Religion was the destruction of Huguenot power and the restoration of Catholicism as the official dry land religion of France. Methods The employment of historical documents was highly noted in the book. Several documents dating back to the sixteenth part century were presented to compound the main thoughts of the author. There was also a heavy reliance on the use of autobiographies, especially that of the Huguenot leaders who survived the massacre. In general, the methods used by the author were complex in structure and analytic in form.General Critique The author was able to historically slice the events prior to the Huguenot massacre. This is unlike other archives books where events were seen as linear progression of cause and effect. Here, events were treated as a web of related forms, track to a major event. It failed though to explain the conditions which gave Huguenots tremendous power in France despite their minute number. BIBLIOGRAPHY Diefendorf, Barbara B. to a lower place the Cross Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth-Century Paris. (New York Oxford UP, 1991).