St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-19
ST. BARTH0L0MEW's DAY
PROVES TO BE a RED-LETrER
ONE IN ECCLESIASTICAL
HISTORY.
MASSACRE OF THE HUGuENoTs
Wildly Recalled in a Strong Ser
mon Preached by Rev.
Cotton.

we'll filled yesterday, and those pres
ent heard very interesting histori-
cal and doctrinal sermon upon st.
Bartholomew day by Rev. Ham
mond Cotton. The text was from
John xviii, Sc. The Globe gives
an extended synopsis of the dis
course:
Jesus answered, My kingdom is
not of this world; if My kingdom
We're of this world, then would My
servants fight" Such is the lesson
which is suggested by the holy day
of the church, which occurs next
Saturday, which, by the strange
overruling of divine providence has
proved to be in an evil sense one of
the red-letter days of ecclesiastical
history. 1t was in the still early
dawn of Aug. "a, 1872, in the reign
of Charles TX. of France that the
great bell of ST. German de L
Auxerrois rang out the signal which
the queens mother, Catharine de
Medicis, had prearranged for the
wholesale massacre of the Hugue-
nots, the first of whom to fall was the
brave Admiral Coliquy; and when
been answered by the bells of all
the churches of the city of Paris
and of the Louvre, the slaughter was
begun in every part of the city.
What an awful time that was. Mu-
tilated bodies were falling from the
windows, and the dead and dying
lay together in undistinguishable
heaps, or were drawn over the pave
ments to the river, which was liter
ally dyed with bloodi AS to the
massacres which followed in the
provinces it is impossible to say how
many thousands lost their lives for
conscience's sake. The Roman
archbishop of Paris, Pereffxe, states
the number to have been nearly 100,-
600. How many Christians amongst
us must feel Inundated when we re-
member that on receiving the news
that 1.-The Seine flowed on more
majestically after receiving the
bodies of heretics," the bishop Of
Rome and representative of ST. Pet
brate high mass; that a tie deum
was sung in commemoration of the
event, and the firing of cannon an
nounced it to the -neighboring vii
lagos; that a medal was struck bear
ing on one side the head of Gregory
Kill, and on the other a destroying
angel exterminating the Protestants,
], +, To Of
HuguenotS, 1872" O Christ, what
crimes have been committed in Thy
name! 1t was on Aug. "a 1862, in the
reign of Charles II. of England that
1000 clergy were compelled to leave
house and home with their families
because they could not comply with
the condition imposed by the act
Of uniformity. The corporation act
had been passed on the Goth of De-
cember, 1861, seeking to deprive Pres
byterianism Of it's influence in the
large towns, and the act of uniformity
on the 18th of May compelling 'as-
sent and consent to everything in
the Book of Common Prayer as it
then was; and now under circum-
stances of open deceit and flippant
cruelty 1000 ministers were, on st.
Bartholomew day, deprived of their
offices. This says the historian,
was an action without precedent.
The like Of this the reformed church,
nay, the Christian world, never saw
before. Historians relate with
tragical EXPLANATIONS, that between
three and four score bishops were
driven at once into the island of
Sardinia by the African vandals;
that 200 ministers were banished by
Ferdinand, King Of Bohemia, and
that great havoc was a few years
after made among the ministers of
Germany by the imperial interim.
But these altogether fall short of the
number elected by the act of uni
formity, which was not less than
1000. The succeeding hardships of
the latter were also by far the great
est. Not SO much as a poor yicarage,
not an obscure chapel, not a school
was left them. Nay, though they Of
fered, as some of them did, to preach
gratis, it must not be allowed them"
Can we wonder that men like John
Cotton, John Eliot, Winthrop, Rich
ard Mather and his distinguished
grandson, Cotton Mather, with the
host of others, had sought before
this on these American shores to
find more excellent way and sys-
tem-"the New England way" as
it was then called? Our own doctrin-
al sympathies are of course with
Winthrop and his comrades, who
esteemed it an honor to call the
Church of England, from whence we
rise, our dear mother" and emigrat-
ed Ito use their own words) that
they might be divided from her cor
ruptions, not from herself. With
the separation of church and state,
which was adopted as one of the
fundamental principles of the Amer
lean constitution by those members
of our own church which established
it, every patriotic American church
man must entirely concur.
First and foremost, beloved, and as
a general principle, remember that
physical force has no place in the
propagation of the faith. ''T'he weap-
ons of our warfare are not carnal."
MY kingdom, says Christ, sis not of
this world; if My kingdom were of
this world, then would My servants
fight; but now is My kingdom not
from hence" The Huguenots, Who
were massacred, and the elected cler-
gy who resisted passively, chose the
proper weapons, whether they were
doctrinally right or doctrinally wrong
Those who prosecuted them, even
though Catholic and orthodox in their
belief were fighting with the devils
weapons. Better the triumph of pa
ganism-dreadful though it may be to
comtemplate-than the triumph of