Skip to content Catholic Online Logo   The first point argued
was whether or not the massacre had been premeditated by the
French Court — Sismondi, Sir James Mackintosh, and Henri Bordier
maintaining that it had, and Ranke, Henri Martin, Henry White,
Loiseleur, H. de la Ferrière, and the Abbé Vacandard, that it
had not. The second question debated was the extent to which the
court of Rome was responsible for this outrage. At present only
a few over-zealous Protestant historians claim that the Holy See
was the accomplice of the French Court: this view implies their
belief in the premeditation of the massacre, which is now denied
by the majority of historians. For the satisfactory solution of
the question it is necessary to distinguish carefully between
the attempted murder of Coligny on 22 August and his
assassination on the night of 23-24 August, and the general
massacre of Protestants.  The idea of a summary execution of the
Protestant leaders, which would be the means of putting an end
to the civil discord