Thus occurred the odious Massacre of St. Bartholomew, so called from the saint whose feast fell on the same day (24 August, 1572), Admiral Coligny being slain with many of his Huguenot followers. The massacre spread to many provincial towns. The number of victims is estimated at 2000 for the capital, and 6000 to 8000 for the rest of France. The king explained to foreign courts that Coligny and his partisans had organized a plot against his person and authority, and that he (the king) had merely suppressed it. Thus it was that Pope Gregory XIII at first believed in a conspiracy of the Huguenots, and, persuaded that the king had but defended himself against these heretics, held a service of thanksgiving for the repression of the conspiracy, and commemorated it by having a medal struck, which he sent with his felicitations to Charles IX. There is no proof that the Catholic clergy were in the slightest degree connected with the massacre.Even Wikipedia doesn't mention Church sanction of Huguenot massacres.Huguenots
1917 Catholic Encyclopedia
Right, because they were persecuted for the treasonous act of committing heresy. It was a crime against the state. Protestant rulers made the same error, but they sure didn't create it out of whole-cloth.
Well... DUH!!!!
The Vatican’s slaughters were done by the potentates it controlled. If the pope, a cardinal or bishop, even a parish priest wanted a result, they pronounced their judgments and looked to the local government authority to carry out the sentences.
The clergy seldom soiled their pretty dresses with the blood of the martyrs. But as with Pontius Pilate, allowing others to carry out an evil deed doesn’t absolve one of the guilt, no matter how many times one washes one’s hands.