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France’s Reign of Terror: Its True Cause
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opposition. In the persecution visited upon the confessors of the
gospel France had crucified Christ in the person of His disciples.
Century after century the blood of the saints had been shed.
While the Waldenses laid down their lives on the mountains of Pied-
mont “for the testimony of Jesus Christ,” similar witness had been
borne by the Albigenses of France. The disciples of the Reforma-
tion had been put to death with horrible tortures. King and nobles,
highborn women and delicate maidens had feasted their eyes on the
agonies of the martyrs of Jesus. The brave Huguenots had poured
out their blood on many a hard-fought field, hunted down like wild
beasts.
The few descendants of the ancient Christians that still lingered
in France in the eighteenth century, hiding away in the mountains
of the south, cherished the faith of their fathers. They were dragged
away to lifelong slavery in the galleys. The most refined and intelli-
gent of the French were chained, in horrible torture, amidst robbers
and assassins. Others were shot down in cold blood as they fell upon
their knees in prayer. Their country, laid waste with the sword, the
axe, the fagot, “was converted into one vast, gloomy wilderness.”
[170]
“These atrocities were enacted ... in no dark age, but in the brilliant
era of Louis XIV. Science was then cultivated, letters flourished,
the divines of the court and of the capital were learned and eloquent
men, and greatly affected the graces of meekness and charity.
The Most Horrible of Crimes
But most horrible among the fiendish deeds of the dreadful cen-
turies was the St. Bartholomew Massacre. The king of France, urged
on by priests and prelates, lent his sanction. A bell, tolling at dead of
night, was a signal for the slaughter. Protestants by thousands, sleep-
ing in their homes, trusting the honor of their king, were dragged
forth and murdered.
For seven days the massacre continued in Paris. By order of
the king it was extended to all towns where Protestants were found.
Noble and peasant, old and young, mother and child, were cut down
together. Throughout France 70,000 of the flower of the nation
perished.
3
Wylie, bk. 22, ch. 7.