The " Church in the Desert ," the few descendants of the ancient Christians that still lingered in France in the eighteenth century , hiding away in the mountains of the south , still cherished the faith of their fathers . As they ventured to meet by night on mountainside or lonely moor , they were chased by dragoons and dragged away to lifelong slavery in the galleys . The purest , the most refined , and the most intelligent of the French were chained , in horrible torture , amidst robbers and assassins . ( See Wylie , b . 22 , ch . 6 .) Others , more mercifully dealt with , were shot down in cold blood , as , unarmed and helpless , they fell upon their knees in prayer . Hundreds of aged men , defenseless women , and innocent children were left dead upon the earth at their place of meeting . In traversing the mountainside or the forest , where they had been accustomed to assemble , it was not unusual to find " at every four paces , dead bodies dotting the sward , and corpses hanging suspended from the trees ." Their country , laid waste with the sword , the ax , the fagot , " was converted into one vast , gloomy wilderness ." " 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 ." -- Ibid ., b . 22 , ch . 7 .
But blackest in the black catalogue of crime , most horrible among the fiendish deeds of all the dreadful centuries , was the St . Bartholomew Massacre . The world still recalls with shuddering horror the scenes of that most cowardly and cruel onslaught . The king of France , urged on by Romish priests and prelates , lent his sanction to the dreadful work . A bell , tolling at dead of night , was a signal for the slaughter . Protestants by thousands , sleeping quietly in their homes , trusting to the plighted honour of their king , were dragged forth without a warning and murdered in cold blood .
As Christ was the invisible leader of His people from Egyptian bondage , so was Satan the unseen leader of his subjects in this horrible work of multiplying martyrs . For seven days the massacre was continued in Paris , the first three with inconceivable fury . And it was not confined to the city itself , but by special order of the king was extended to all the provinces and towns where Protestants were found . Neither age nor sex was respected . Neither the innocent babe nor the man of gray hairs was spared . Noble and peasant , old and young , mother and child , were cut down together . Throughout France the butchery continued for two months . Seventy thousand of the very flower of the nation perished .
" When the news of the massacre reached Rome , the exultation among the clergy knew no bounds . The cardinal of Lorraine rewarded the messenger with a thousand crowns ; the cannon of St . Angelo thundered forth a joyous salute ; and bells rang out from every steeple ; bonfires turned night into day ; and Gregory XIII , attended by the cardinals and other ecclesiastical dignitaries , went in long procession to the church of St . Louis , where the cardinal of Lorraine chanted a Te Deum . . . . A medal was struck to commemorate the massacre , and in the Vatican may still be seen three
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