Posted on 05/22/2012 7:55:28 PM PDT by marshmallow
That Spanish killed French in the New World is not in dispute, but the reasons were commercial and territorial, not theological. In the context of religious, territorial and trade wars raging across Europe those Protestants had invaded Spanish territory and had established an armed fort and were protecting it with a fleet of 11 ships. The presence of a foreign fort and fleet were a direct threat to the Spanish treasure fleets sailing to and from Spain. Name one 16th sovereign of any religion that would not have responded similarly with force.
You should do a little more reading of the actual history before you make outlandish charges like that. Using a 21st century lens to judge the actions of the 16th century is a fools errand. First, the killings were done by mobs of French peasants, not by French authorities. Second, the mobs were motivated by true stories of Huguenot alliances with both the English and Ottoman Turks in support of an attempted coup with an ambition to establish a Protestant government like had just been done in Scotland. The massacres too place very shortly after the end of the 3rd French religious war when there were still Protestant armies camped outside the major French cities. Third, that the Pope would celebrate the suppression of a Protestant rebellion following the atrocities committed against the Church and its clergy in England, Scotland, Ireland and the other strongholds of Protestantism is understandable when the preservation of the faith was in doubt just a few years earlier. It is completely condemnable by today's standards, but understandable in the context of the tumult of the 16th century.
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