Francois Barriere de Nages

Biography & Notes

The Wars of Religion, which spanned more than two centuries, had bloody repercussions in the village [of Nages-et-Solorgues]. Its lords were sometimes directly involved, as we shall see. From 1567 onward, the Vaunage region was the scene of an uprising and violence against Catholics. Around a hundred of them were massacred in Nîmes, and several dragoons from Damville's troops were slaughtered in Vaunage. The lord of Nages, François de Barrière, an "esquire," himself participated in the Michelade massacre. His own brother, Jacques, a Catholic and councilor at the Présidial court, took refuge in Nages but was killed there by the Huguenots. Another lord took part in the atrocities: François de Pavée, who had just sold the lordship of Nages to François de Barrière. Pavée quickly became an important figure in the attempts at interfaith negotiations. As early as 1560, he was tasked with delivering a letter to the king's court concerning the religious unrest. A year later, he was stationed in Nîmes as a Protestant colonel, where he was responsible for disarming the inhabitants. He participated in the capture of Beaucaire in 1562, where it is said that "he massacred everyone who came his way. In short, this expedition, which lasted nine or ten hours, was a horrific massacre." He was sentenced to death in absentia in 1569, but the sentence was never carried out. A leading figure in the Huguenot camp and a skilled negotiator, François I de Rochemore later participated in the pacification talks at Nîmes. His brother Charles was the lord of Solorgues. The Protestant Michelade in Nîmes in 1567. Jacques de Crussol notified the Protestants of the region of the Prince of Condé's orders to take up arms. The Protestant leaders promptly sent emissaries to the provinces to prepare the people for a general uprising. Jacques de Crussol, Lord of Acier, brother of the Duke of Uzès, arrived at Uzès on September 27th, carrying orders from the Prince of Condé to take up arms. He delivered these orders to all those of the new religion in the places he passed through, notably Pont-Saint-Esprit. He also notified those in charge of the affairs of the Reformed churches of Lower Languedoc. Those in Nîmes armed themselves accordingly and massacred a large number of Catholics. No sooner had these orders been communicated to the Protestants of Nîmes than widespread unrest erupted. They were not content with simply carrying out all the The necessary preparations for an uprising were also made: the most tragic plans were hatched there, plans aimed at undermining the foundations of the old religion and destroying the Catholics. Here are the details provided to me by the newspapers, news reports, and other contemporary sources: An assembly was immediately held in the house of Robert le Blanc, lord of La Rouvière, judge of the ordinary royal court, of some of the principal men of the town, to discuss the most suitable means of executing this plan. There it was unanimously resolved to take up arms immediately. It was further agreed to slaughter any priests, religious, and leading Catholics who could be found. The day for the execution of the plot was set for the 30th of this month. September, which was the day after Michaelmas. It should be noted, however, that the article of the plan concerning the massacre had only been agreed upon and finalized by three members of the assembly: François Pavée, Lord of Servas; Pierre Suau, known as Captain Bouillargues; and Vidal Poldo Albenas. They only communicated and made it public among the leading members of the Protestant faith on the 29th of the month, Michaelmas. On that day, a second assembly, even larger and more select than the first, was held at the home of François Pavée, Lord of Servas. Moreover, it seems that there was some understanding between them and the captains of the neighborhood. On the last day, Jean de Cambis, lord of Soustelles, brother of François de Cambis, baron of Alais, was seen going to a place called the Croix de la Fogasse, on the road which goes from Nîmes to La Calmette, leading with him ten men on horseback and twenty-five on foot, and having an interview with a private citizen from Nîmes, called La Ramée, clerk of the keeper of the seals of the presidial court, who went there from Nîmes, and, after a few moments of conversation, resumed with his troop the road to Alais. Finally, on Tuesday the 30th of September, at noon, the Protestants were ordered to take up arms, with orders to arrest the leading Catholics in their homes and wherever they might be found. A few Catholics, but a small number who had been warned of the plot, anticipated the storm and left the city hastily and in great disorder. Among them were Jean de Montcalm, chief judge of the seneschal's court, and Jean Albenas, lord of Colias, chief lieutenant. Councilor Honoré Richier was seen leaving that day, at one o'clock in the afternoon, through the Carmelite Gate, in his court robes, and taking the road called the Road of the Five Lives, which leads to Provence. Councilor Pierre Saurin likewise found his salvation in flight: he mounted his horse at the same hour and hastily left through the same gate. Others took refuge in the castle, where there was a good garrison of the king's troops. Some also remained in the town, hidden and disguised. The parish priest of Jonquières, near Beaucaire, named Jean Vincent, who was Having come to Nîmes to buy some things on Michaelmas Day, which is market day in that city, he was forced to take refuge at the Coquille inn, where he disguised himself as a cook and performed those duties for as long as he remained hidden in this disguise. A man named Rouverié, brother of the lord of Cabrières, first hid in the well of his house, from which he soon emerged, and crossed over to the rooftops of a neighbor's house, where he remained hidden for the duration of the storm. No sooner had the signal for the uprising been given than several platoons of armed men formed and ran through the streets, shouting at the top of their lungs, some: "Arms! Saar shops!" others: "Kill the papists! New world!" Others shouted: "Kill! Kill! They must be killed!" Some, hoping to rekindle the zeal of this rioting multitude, went everywhere, loudly proclaiming that the king was a prisoner; that the queen mother had been killed, along with the king's two brothers, Henry, Duke of Anjou, and Francis, Duke of Alençon, as well as all those of the House of Guise, whom they called Guisards; that the party troops had seized Lyon and the principal cities of the kingdom and that everything there was under their control. By these false rumors, which they presented as true, they had so inflamed the courage of the soldiers and the people that they breathed nothing but blood and carnage. They were all armed with all sorts of weapons. They wore all the different kinds of armor that were in use at that time among soldiers: I mean helmets, morions, burgonet, cuirasses, chain mail, breastplates, and targes, which were a kind of large shield used by infantrymen to cover their entire bodies; roundels and rondels, other kinds of shields that infantrymen carried on their left arm. Their offensive weapons included arquebuses, pistols (small arquebuses fired with one hand), pistols hanging from their belts, lances, halberds, daggers, pikes, and lancejays, which were smaller and longer than pikes. In short, they had forgotten nothing to put themselves in a position to promptly and safely shed the blood of those who were the object of their hatred. From the very beginning of the uprising, all the shops were closed, and the entire city was a scene of terror and desolation. About thirty armed men, led by Jacques de Possaque, a quartermaster in Captain Bouillargues' cavalry company, initially set out to seize the city keys, which were in the possession of Gui Rochette, a lawyer and the First Consul. It was known that Rochette had dined that day at the home of Jean Grégoire, a bourgeois and his father-in-law. The soldiers therefore went to Grégoire's house. They knocked harshly and repeatedly on the front door, which was locked. When Grégoire's wife, the First Consul's mother, appeared at the window, de Possaque immediately told her, with threats and blasphemies, that they were there to take the city keys. But this pious mother, fearing some evil intent against her son, replied that she could not give them the keys they requested because her son was not there and she did not know where he might be. From there, the group went to the First Consul's own house. They searched everywhere, even his chests; but, as they did not find the keys, they contented themselves with taking his weapons, which consisted of a sword, a dagger, and a halberd, which they divided among themselves. The plan was to seize the city gates, for fear that the Catholics, frightened by all the military presence, would flee at the first sign of unrest. So they all closed them and guard posts were stationed everywhere, who took extreme care to prevent any Catholics from leaving. However, the First Consul, as zealous for the faith as for the service of his prince and the salvation of his country, set about putting an end to this nascent conflagration. As soon as the soldiers had made their way to his house, he left his father-in-law's house, wearing his hood, and went through all the streets, accompanied by Robert Grégoire, a lawyer and his half-brother, followed by three or four town servants, exhorting the people to lay down their arms and remain within the bounds of duty. His admonitions had no effect, and everyone turned their backs on him. Seeing that nothing could calm this common fury, he went to some judicial officers and the leading citizens to ask them to join him and rush together to stop these disturbances; but, since they were themselves almost all instigators or accomplices, they refused to support his plans. All this did not discourage the generous consul. He found the bishop: it was still Bernard of Elbena, and with tears in his eyes, he recounted the city's dire situation and the meager results of his efforts and interventions. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the prelate replied that they must turn to prayer, and immediately knelt down and offered his prayers. All those with him did likewise and commended themselves to God with prayers mingled with sobs and tears. They had scarcely begun when Captain Bouillargues, holding a pistol in one hand and his naked sword in the other, followed by more than 200 armed men, stormed into the bishop's palace, having forced the gates open. Almost all the Catholics inside fled immediately and hid wherever they could. The bishop and his servants evaded capture. They went to a neighboring house belonging to a councilor of the presidial court named André de Brueis, lord of Sauvignargues; they entered through a hole or breach that this councilor had had made that very day, which opened into the bishop's palace. They entered through this opening with Thomas Mosque, a priest and his chaplain. and Louis de Sainte-Sofie, commonly known as Monsieur Ludovico, his steward. The other people who were in his service, such as Pierre Journet, a young clerk only twenty-two years old, a native and resident of Nîmes; Jean Fardeau and the rest of his servants also took refuge there; but they entered through a small window that opened onto this house. Captain Bouillargues ordered a thorough search of the bishop's palace. Seeing that his attempt at capture had failed, he simply handed it over to his soldiers for plunder. Of all the Catholics present upon his arrival, only the First Consul and Robert Gregory, his half-brother, were taken prisoner. They had remained kneeling, continuing their prayers. They were taken to the house of a Protestant merchant named William the Hermit. This house and that of Pierre Cellerier, a goldsmith, had been chosen to house the Catholics who would be arrested. They were located next to each other on Rue des Greffes. A guardhouse had been placed in front of both, with soldiers in the rooms keeping the prisoners under surveillance. The rest of the day was spent arresting priests and Catholics, who were immediately taken and held prisoner in one or the other of these two houses. Among them were two officers of the presidial court: George Gevaudan, the king's advocate, and Pierre Valette, the king's chief prosecutor. The armed men carrying out all these arrests were artisans, such as silk workers, wool carders, shoemakers, cobblers, and other lowly workers in the mechanical arts. They were led, among others, by magistrates and lawyers, armed with swords and halberds, dressed in chainmail, and wearing morions or helmets. Nothing could move their pity or soften their hearts; no, not even the most touching sights. President Calvière and Charles Rozel, a lawyer, armed with a drawn sword and followed by a troop of men carrying arquebuses and pistols, were seen leading Jean Bandan, the second consul, prisoner to Cellerier's house. This was despite the tears and lamentations of his wife, who had not left his side and who begged them to grant him his freedom. When Guillaume l'Hermite went to fetch François de Gras, a lawyer, at the head of one of these troops—who was in his house and already preparing to flee—his wife immediately approached him, and, weeping bitterly, asked him what was to be done with her husband. The Hermit, who had initially told de Gras upon entering that he was coming with him, that they had something to speak with him, replied to his wife that no harm would come to him. Then de Gras said, "You must go and see what they want with me; Our Lord will protect me; they can only kill me once." But since they also wanted to take his children's tutor, he begged them to leave him in his house, where there was no other man but himself, to care for his seven children, in addition to five nephews through his brother, for whom he was responsible. This was granted, but only on the tutor's promise not to leave the house, under penalty of death; and immediately de Gras was taken to the Hermit's own house. All these captures continued until nightfall, when it was decided to begin the general massacre in order to lessen the terror of such a terrible spectacle. However, one of these troops, having gone to the house of Jean Peberan, the third archdeacon of the cathedral and vicar-general of the bishop, did not wait so long before attacking him. This priest was the first victim sacrificed. Louis la Grange, the clerk, and some others who were at the head of the troop, slit his throat in his room with daggers and swords, inflicting up to three hundred blows. They stole about eight hundred écus from him and threw his body away. the windows. While Catholics were being arrested on all sides, and from the very beginning of the uproar, various armed bands of Huguenots went and pillaged all the churches, which they soon ransacked. Those who seized the cathedral smashed the altars and the canons' seats, cut down the crosses, and burned these fragments inside the church itself. They removed the sacred vessels, the vestments, and everything else that might be of use to them. The same was done to the houses of the chapter, whether of the provost, the three archdeacons, and the capiscol, or of the priests of the lower choir; they were all ransacked and pillaged, as was the bishop's palace. In addition to this, they set fire to a great fire in front of the cathedral church, and burned in it some of the titles, censuses and feudal acknowledgments of the chapter that they had been able to remove; the other part was burned in the church itself and the rest removed by various individuals, who went everywhere saying publicly that the inhabitants would no longer pay rents to the chapter. Other armed bands of Protestants also pillaged the homes of the wealthiest Catholics, focusing particularly on weapons and provisions. The houses of Jean de Montcalm, chief magistrate; Jean Albenas, chief lieutenant; Georges Gevaudan, the king's advocate; Pierre Valette, the king's first prosecutor; and Joseph Delon, Lord of Ners, treasurer or receiver of the domain of the seneschal's court of Beaucaire, were completely ransacked and looted. Etienne André, known as Radel, was stripped of all the weapons and armor found in his possession, and, in addition, all the money he had in a chest secured with two locks, consisting of 1,750 livres of a deposit made in his possession and 500 livres of his own money. He himself was arrested and taken to the house of Pierre Cellerier, to be among the other victims. But his wife bought back his life and freedom and paid Captain Bouillargues a thousand pounds for it. At about nine o'clock in the evening, a proclamation was made by trumpet sound, ordering all Protestants, whether residents or foreigners, to go promptly, armed, to the square in front of the cathedral church, with Catholics were ordered to remain in their homes, under penalty of death. At that moment, a crowd of Protestants, bearing arms and shouting loudly that all the papists should be killed, gathered in the square. Immediately afterward, all the Catholics arrested during the day were brought to the Town Hall in several stages and by different groups. They were escorted by thirty or forty armed Protestants, who carried numerous lit torches before them. First, all the keys were seized, and after searching for the safest rooms, some of the Catholics were placed in the upper hall and the rest in a lower hall where meat was butchered during Lent for the sick. They were kept under guard, and the Town Hall remained surrounded by armed men. After two hours, a group of about thirty Protestants, armed with arquebuses or pistols, went to the gate of the town hall. Two of them were chosen to bring down the prisoners held in the upper room who were destined to be the first to be slaughtered. Pierre Cellerier, a goldsmith and one of these two, entered the room and read from a list he held in his hand the names of these first victims. The victims were Gui Rochette, First Consul; Robert Grégoire, his half-brother, a lawyer; François de Gras, a lawyer; Father Jean Quatrebar, Prior of the Augustinians and Ordinary Preacher of the Cathedral; Father Pierre Foucrand, an Augustinian; Father Nicolas Sauffet, Prior of the Jacobins; Antoine du Prix, a priest; and several others. They were brought down into the courtyard, and from there they were taken to the bishop's palace. Father Quatrebar continued to encourage the Catholics. They were led with him; he exhorted them to persevere, telling them that he saw the heavens opened to receive them. As soon as they arrived in the courtyard of the bishop's palace, their massacre began. They were slaughtered with daggers and swords. The first consul, amidst the dagger blows he received, begged his murderers not to kill his brother Gregory; but it was in vain, he was slaughtered like him. Their bodies were then thrown into a large well at the back of the courtyard, near the building. Their clothes and everything found on them were taken. Two valuable rings were taken from Consul Rochette, and six hundred écus were taken from the lawyer de Gras, who had put on him with the intention of fleeing. Their massacre lasted two hours. People with lit torches were placed on the belfry, in the bell tower windows, and on the cathedral roof to better illuminate the entire scene of the massacre. Afterward, the same men who had led them returned to the Town Hall. Pierre Cellerier entered the lower chamber and ordered Etienne de Rodillan, a canon, and Jean Pierre, the cathedral's music master, to follow them to the bishop's palace, telling them it was in accordance with the deliberation that had taken place on this matter in full council by the governing gentlemen. The two victims obeyed. They were led into the courtyard of the bishop's palace. No sooner had Jean Pierre arrived than he was struck several times with a dagger. He cried out, "Alas, I am dead, I can go no further." But one of those who were striking him replied in the local language: "Encare caminaras jusques ou pous." He was then slaughtered, as was Etienne de Rodillan, and their bodies were thrown into the same well. The same men returned to the Town Hall and brought out from the lower hall Etienne Mazoyer, a canon; Georges Guerinot, a shoemaker; Louis Doladille, a silk worker; and several others. They had barely reached the two doors of the Town Hall when Jean Vigier, one of those forming the escort, seized Doladille by the collar, saying, "Ah, galland, you're here!" and instantly struck him a mighty blow with his sword, grievously wounding him. At that moment, two other members of the escort, joking with Canon Mazoyer, told him he wasn't comfortable there and that they wanted to take him to the bishop's residence where he would be more at ease. They were then led into the courtyard of the bishop's palace, where they suffered the same fate as the others. It was in this manner, and on several occasions, that those whom it had been resolved to put to death were led from the Town Hall to the courtyard of the Bishop's Palace. It should be noted here that among those who thus led them to the place of their immolation and who participated, either personally or by their presence, in these massacres, were several distinguished persons, armed with swords, daggers, and arquebuses. Among these were, among others, President Calvière; Pierre Robert, lieutenant of the viguier; Pierre Suau, known as Captain Bouillargues; François Pavée, lord of Servas; Robert Aymés, lord of Blausac; and four lawyers, namely: Guillaume Calvière, eldest son of the president; Louis Bertrand; Pierre Maltrait; and Pierre de Monteils. The Catholics, when being led to the place of the massacre, or when they had arrived there, never ceased to lament, to cry out thanks to God, and to implore his assistance and mercy. They begged their murderers to let them pray to God before they died; this was granted, but soon they were told it was too much to pray for and their throats were slit. Some were pierced with swords and others killed with arquebuses and pistols. A Franciscan friar, named Brother William, was killed by an arquebus shot under the tree in the courtyard of the bishop's palace. Their bodies were all thrown into the well, which was almost filled to overflowing, although it was very large, being more than seven fathoms deep and more than four feet in diameter; the water, mingled with blood, floated to the surface. As several of those thrown in were only half-slaughtered, they could still be heard uttering a few groans. but in a weak and dying voice. While this massacre was taking place, some Protestants, venting their rage even on corpses, went and took the body of Jean Peberan, the bishop's vicar-general. He had been left in the street in front of his house, exposed to all the most vile insults of the mob. They dragged him with a thick rope tied around his neck, right into the courtyard of the bishop's palace, and threw him into the well. The massacre, which began at eleven o'clock at night, lasted all night and continued into the morning of Wednesday, October 1st. That morning, a thorough search was conducted in all the Catholic homes. Those arrested were immediately taken to the courtyard of the bishop's palace, where they were slaughtered and then thrown into the well. One of the troops conducting the search that morning, consisting of eight or ten soldiers armed with arquebuses with matchlocks and wearing morions at their heads, entered, around ten or eleven o'clock, the house of Councilor Sauvignargues, where the bishop had remained hidden all night with his servants. The leader of the troop set about taking him away. The bishop then approached the councilor to see if he could be appeased with some sum of money. Sauvignargues spoke to the troop, and it was agreed that the bishop would give one hundred or six hundred écus and that his life, as well as that of his servants who were with him, would be spared. This forced the prelate, who did not have this sum, to borrow some of his servants; Sauvignargues provided the rest. Not content with this money, the soldiers took from all those who were with him their purses, robes, hats, and other main garments, leaving them in their doublets. The bishop was also put in a doublet. After which, they went and locked them in a cellar of the house. Meanwhile, a second troop of Protestants arrived, armed with arquebuses, pistols, and other weapons, with a morion helmet at their head, and they rapped loudly on the front door. When the others refused to open it, they went to a neighboring house belonging to an apothecary named Maturin, from where they climbed a ladder into the house of Sauvignargues, throwing down tiles and causing terrible upheaval on the roofs, as if they had taken a city by force, shouting at the top of their lungs: "You, kill the papists!" Soon after, a third group of men arrived, armed in the same manner as the others, with their fuses on the coils. Robert Aymés, Lord of Blausac, led them, armed with a sword, a pistol, and a steel disc. Having entered the room of the wife of the councilor of Sauvinargues, he seized Pierre Journet, a young clerk, who had taken refuge there. He first struck him several times on the head with the disc and then drove him out of the room; he then struck him once on the right side with his sword, and one of his men struck him again on the left thigh. He was left lying in a pool of blood on the steps. However, the bishop was discovered and arrested, along with his servants, who had hidden in various places. They were immediately led out of the house through the back door, which opened onto the crossroads near the Grand'Table well. Once in the street, the bishop's rings were forcibly removed, and a kind of cap with a turned-up brim was placed on his head. Afterward, they set off to take him to the courtyard of the bishop's palace. But no sooner had they arrived at the crossroads near the Grand'Table well than Louis de Sainte-Sofie, his steward, was slaughtered before his very eyes, with Aymés, Lord of Blauzac, striking the first blow with his sword. Several other Protestants in the group also struck him repeatedly with swords and daggers, leaving him dead on the ground. The bishop had begun to pray to God; but after this murder, they finished leading him to the bishop's palace, where, upon arrival, he fell to his knees and continued his prayers. However, one of the group, named Jacques Coussinal, suddenly declared himself in favor of the bishop. He displayed such zeal and tenacity in wanting to save his life that his companions, who kept shouting that the Bishop of Nîmes' throat should be cut like the others, were forced to hand him over. So, with a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, he led him into the house of the heirs of Jacques de Rochemaure, the lieutenant of the seneschal's court, and remained himself at the door thus armed, threatening to kill anyone who approached to take his life. The prelate remained shut up in the house for the rest of the day and was thereby safe from danger. On the other hand, Pierre Journet was taken, nearly dying, to the courtyard of the bishop's palace, near the well. There, the man who had brought him began to strip him, and had already uncovered his right arm, when Journet begged him to let him say his prayers and commend his soul to God: this was granted, but on the condition that he do so in the manner of the Huguenots. As he failed to comply with this condition and said his prayers in A good Catholic, they continued to strip him, intending to massacre him and throw him into the well. Then a soldier carrying a halberd arrived, who, moved by pity for the young cleric, stopped the man who was stripping him and told him that if he didn't release him, he would kill him himself. The man stubbornly insisted on slitting Journet's throat, saying he wouldn't let him go until he had killed him. This argument lasted for more than an hour. Finally, the two of them agreed to take Journet before Captain Bouillargues, which they did immediately. This was his salvation. It turned out that he was the captain's foster brother. Seeing him wounded and covered in blood, the captain asked him who had left him in this state, saying that he wanted to take justice into his own hands. And immediately he had him taken to his father's house; Journet was ill there and in danger of death for almost two months, but he recovered. He later became a canon of the cathedral church of Nîmes. The massacre ceased around noon on October 1st. Almost all the remaining Catholics who had been arrested were rounded up. Only about forty prisoners were held in the lower hall of the Town Hall, from where they were taken to the house of Monsieur de Boucoiran. Among them were Jean Baudan, François Aulbert, and Christol Ligier, the second, third, and fourth consuls, respectively. These prisoners were kept for another five or six days in this house, after which they were released on bail, according to the deliberations of the gentlemen. On Thursday the 2nd of the same month, Seneschal Honoré des Martins de Grille escorted Bishop Bernard d'Elbène out of Nîmes. In addition, he secured the release of others. On the same day, George Gevaudan, the king's advocate at the presidial court; Pierre Valette, the king's first prosecutor at the same court; and three canons of the cathedral. The bishop withdrew to Provence, and apparently, he first went to Tarascon, where he was twenty days after the Michelade. On the 21st of that same month of October, he granted a few salmées of land, located in Garons, near Nîmes, to Jean Fardeau, one of his men. He then went to Arles, where, on the 10th of the following March, he again granted sixteen salmées of land, also located in Garons, near Nîmes, and contiguous to the previous ones, to the same Jean Fardeau. This last document, describing the place where it was passed and the state in which the bishop found himself, stated: "In the convent of the Franciscan friars where the said lord now lives, causing troubles.... The said lord bishop has said he cannot write because of the weakness of his hands causing his illness." It is noteworthy that the fury of the religious leaders throughout this massacre did not fall upon the Catholic women. They all remained in the city, unharmed. The religious leaders targeted only priests, monks, and heads of households, and even among the latter, they only chose as victims those who had caused them trouble or who had spoken out too openly against them on occasion. This was the primary motive that guided their choice of victims. The Catholics in the countryside were not spared from this fury. The Protestants gathered in the Vaunage region on the night of September 30th to October 1st. There, they massacred several Catholics, including Jacques Barrière, a councilor at the presidial court, who had retired to his estate in Nages, near Calvisson. They also slaughtered the Albanians or dragoons of Marshal de Damville's company, who were garrisoned throughout the villages of that region. They took their weapons and horses, which they divided among themselves. The ministers of Nîmes, witnesses to all these excesses, nevertheless judged that they could neither be covered up nor glossed over in any way. The consistory assembled on the first of October, after the massacre had ended, and passed a resolution by which the minister of Chambrun and a deacon were deputies to go, in the name of the consistory, to exhort the leaders to cease these deportations. These deputies addressed Servas, who was known to be one of the principal conspirators. But he was careful not to confess. He replied that the murders had not been committed on his orders and that he did not know who the perpetrators were. The deputies then reported to the consistory that they had found no conclusive proof on this matter, but that it was widely believed that Jean Vigier had committed most of the murders. Furthermore, on Wednesday, November 19th, the assembled consistory summoned Gabriel Prades, one of those who had been present at the treaty for the ransom demanded from the Bishop of Nîmes, and questioned him about this matter, as well as about the massacres. This individual confessed that he had seen twenty-five écus given to those in his troop, and that this money had been He was employed to provide a banquet; but he denied having taken part in any murder. The consistory reprimanded him, ordered him to return what he had taken, and left the rest to his conscience. Such were the circumstances of this disastrous expedition, which dealt the Roman Catholic faith the most cruel blows it had ever suffered in Nîmes. It was called the Michelade because it had been plotted shortly before Michaelmas and executed shortly afterwards. None of the Protestant historians have mentioned it. Only the Catholic writers have spoken of it, but they have made considerable errors, both regarding the date, which they attribute to the year 1569, and regarding the circumstances, several of which are contrary to the truth. To ensure that nothing omits that deserves to be passed down to posterity regarding such an important event, it is appropriate that I mention here those Catholics who were massacred and thrown into the well of the bishop's palace, and of whom we have certain and verified evidence. Their memory undoubtedly deserves to be perpetuated. They were: Jean Peheran, third archdeacon, vicar-general of the bishop; Ambroize Blanchon; Etienne de Rodillan; Etienne Mazoyer; Jean Alesti and Antoine du Prix, canons; Four priests from the lower choir, whose names are not known; Louis de Rocles, parish priest of the cathedral; Alexandre André, parish priest of Millaud, near Nîmes; Mathieu du Prix, priest; Thomas Mosque, priest, chaplain to the bishop; Jean Quatrebar, prior of the Augustinians, ordinary preacher of the cathedral; Pierre Folcrand, augustin ; Nicolas Sausset, prior of the Jacobins; William, Franciscan friar; Gui-Rochette, lawyer, first consul; Robert Grégoire and François de Gras, lawyers; Jean Grégoire, notary; A captain named Vidal; Louis de Serres, gendarme; André Faure; Augustin Michel, goldsmith; Jean Pierre, music master of the cathedral; Claude Chimier, secretary to the bishop; Louis de Sainte-Sofie, his steward; Julien Corbon, musician, bass-contrast of the cathedral; N. Peirot, violin player; Blaise Serrane ; Louis Doladille, silk worker; Jean Saissac, solicitor; N. Ginestot, lawyer or court clerk; Jean des Fantaisies, known as the Winnowing Fan, because he was a winnower by profession; François Allier; Antoine Farelle ; Jean des Ollières, shoemaker; Firmin de Saint-Jean, gardener; N. Leonar, bell ringer of the cathedral; Jeannet, baker; George Guerinot, shoemaker; Pierre, known as the Cook; Bernard de Faus, shoemaker. The number of those who perished in this massacre was far greater. Witnesses differ on this point, but most agree that more than one hundred Catholics were killed and thrown into the well. It is hardly possible, in such dreadful chaos, to ascertain and determine precisely the number of victims sacrificed there. A stone cross was later erected on the very well of the bishop's palace, with a Latin inscription engraved on the pedestal, to preserve the memory of this martyrdom. The inscription only puts the number of Catholics massacred at eighty. This cross no longer exists. It was removed from its place when the new episcopal palace was built. The very spot where the well stood is now covered by the front wall of the building, on the left side of the steps, upon entering the vestibule. Nevertheless, some vestiges of such a memorable day should have been left there. I would also add that the bishops who filled the See of Nîmes after these disturbances, even the consuls and all good citizens, should have asked Rome for permission to celebrate the memory of these illustrious Catholics. They had documents of the highest authenticity to establish proof of their martyrdom.

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