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AUGUST

24, 410 --Italy. Today the Visigoths sack Rome, the "Eternal City." They are led by Alaric, and have been charged to spare life and to respect the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul, as well as their treasures. The result of which will strengthen the authority of the Pope.

24, 1456 --Germany. John Gutenberg finishes his forty-two line Bible. He has made one hundred copies on his new invention --a printing press with moveable type.

24, 1484 --Italy. Innocent VIII, otherwise known as Giovanni Battista Cibo, is elevated to the Papacy. He will strengthen the Inquisition in Spain by appointing Thomas de Torquemada as Inquisitor-General, and will issue a bull directing all rulers outside Spain to deliver up "heretics," to Mr. Torquemada. He will preach a crusade against the Waldensians in the Piedmont.

24, 1560 --Scotland. The Scottish Parliament passes three acts. The first is "an Act repealing all former Acts of Parliament contrary to the Word of God and the Confession of Faith recently adopted; second, an "Act for abolishing of the Pope and his usurped authority in Scotland; and last, "An Act against the Mass and the sayers and hearers thereof." This last states that as the Roman Church has corrupted the Sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, no one is permitted to say Mass, nor hear Mass, nor be present where it is being conducted. The punishment is the confiscation of their goods for the first offence, banishment for the second offence, and death for the third offence.

24, 1572 --France. Catherine de Medici has artfully contrived a marriage between her daughter, Margaret, and Henry of Bearne, King of Navarre, chief of the Huguenots. Henry's mother, Jeanne D'Albret, and Admiral Coligny concur with the union hoping it will put an end to the feuds existing between the rival Protestant and Catholic parties. Since the Pope has refused to grant necessary dispensation to enable the marriage to be celebrated, the Queen mother has caused a dispensation to be forged in the name of the Pope.
     As Catherine anticipated, the heads of the Reformed party, believing the marriage to be an important step towards national reconciliation, have resorted to Paris in large numbers. Admiral Coligny and his family are among those present, and though urged by some of the Huguenot chiefs to quit Paris for fear of his safety, he believes in the friendship, not knowing it is a fraud.
      On August 18th, the marriage is celebrated in the cathedral church of Notre Dame, and with the succeeding feasts and gaieties, the fears of the Huguenots are completely disarmed.
     The day following the marriage, on August 19th, a secret council is held in which it is determined to proclaim a general massacre of the Huguenots. The king is now willing to give fifty thousand crowns for the assassination of the Admiral, and Maurevel, the king's assassin, is sent for, and invited to murder the Protestant leader.
     On the 22nd of August, Maurevel lay in a house situated near the church of Saint Germain L'Auxerrois, between the Louvre and Rue Bethisy. As the Admiral passes, Maurevel fires and wounds him in the hand. Mr. Coligny succeeds in reaching his hotel where Ambrose Pare, who performs upon him a painful operation, attends him.
     Maurevel, though he fails, is rewarded two thousand crowns from the king. The king visits the wounded man at his hotel, and professing the greatest horror at the dastardly deed, he vows vengeance against the would-be assassin.
     The Queen mother has fixed this day, August 24th, for a general massacre of the Huguenots. This morning between two and three o'clock, as the king sits in his chamber with his mother and the Duke of Anjou, the great bell, of the Church of Saint Auxerrois rings to early prayer. It is the arranged signal for the massacre to begin! Immediately, the first pistol shot is heard, Three hundred Royal guards, who have been held in readiness this night, rush out into the streets shouting, "For God and the King." They wear a white sash on the left arm, and a white cross on their hats.
     Before leaving the palace, a party of the guard murders the retinue of the young king of Navarre, the guests of Charles IX in the Louvre. One by one, they are called by name from their rooms, marched down unarmed into the quadrangle, and are hewed down before the eyes of the Royal host.



    
 

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