The Site of the Martyrs

I write this post from the American Church in Paris, my hosts for the next eight days or so. The church is on an important historical site. When the infamous St. Bartholomew's Day massacre occurred in August 1572, thousands of French Huguenots (Reformed Protestants) were slaughtered. The massacre began on the East side of the Louvre, then the palace of Charles IX, whose sister had just married Henri of Navarre, a Protestant. The king's mother was Catherine de Medici, a staunch Roman Catholic whose native land had become embroiled in ongoing battles between Catholics and Protestants. She found the marriage to a Protestant unacceptable, and had been advised that since the Huguenots had all gathered to celebrate the marriage of a royal to a Protestant, it would be easier to pre-empt any potential uprising by massacring them then and there. A signal was issued (a small bell, rung by Catherine, and repeated by the church bells of St. Germain l'Auxerrois) and the killing began. Most of the killings happened by the river, and the bodies began washing ashore downstream, on the site of what is now the American Church. The church is literally built upon the witness of the martyrs.

This morning, my host, the Rev. Dr. Scott Herr, shared with me the stories of the early struggles of the Protestant community in Paris as we traveled to St. Germain des Pres (a different church than St. Germain l'Auxerrois), where the Protestant reformation in Paris began. In the abbey of this, the oldest church building in France -- dating to the sixth century -- Jacques Lefevre translated the Bible from ancient Greek manuscripts. The discrepancies between them and the Latin Vulgate moved him to support the nascent reformation movement. Among his pupils was William Farel, who influenced Calvin to reform the Geneva church, and it is said he was visited by Calvin himself on Calvin's flight from France.

The nearby area became a Protestant neighborhood, and the first

synod was organized to perform Protestant baptisms at No. 4, Rue des Marais, situated over catacombs that were thought to give them protection from a possible raid. The site is now an art gallery, and the owner graciously allowed us to go downstairs to where the baptisms took place. I am amazed it isn't recognized as a historical site here.

I am still processing my thoughts and feelings about this introduction to the history around me. I am reminded about what my friend and colleague Bill Chapman wrote about the Book of Order, that "it has blood on every page." In this case, however, the blood is real, and the witness of the martyrs lives on. The oppression of Protestants in Paris, and France generally, led Calvin to seek a safer place to live -- which, by Providence and William Farel's persuasion, was Geneva. However, the expatriate French Protestants in Geneva never were far from their brothers and sisters in France, and Calvin and the Geneva Council designated as much as one-fourth of the offerings of the Geneva Church to their support.

Tomorrow, I visit the birthplace of Calvin in Noyon. Thunderstorms are forecast.