• The Michelade in Nimes, 1567

    Author(s):
    Allan A. Tulchin (see profile)
    Date:
    2006
    Group(s):
    History, Religious Studies, The Renaissance Society of America
    Subject(s):
    France, Sixteenth century, Seventeenth century
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Early modern France
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/k5hb-xa33
    Abstract:
    On September 30, 1567, members of the Protestant majority of Nîmes, led by many members of the présidial court, overthrew the Catholic town council. They arrested many leading Catholics, both laity and priests, who they felt perverted the word and will of God, and massacred an estimated one hundred of them; about one-third of the dead can be securely identified. This massacre, called the Michelade, was exceptional because it was a Protestant majority that attacked a Catholic minority. According to the standard interpretation of religious massacres during this period, Protestants were less interested in killing people than Catholics, but the Michelade suggests that in most cases Protestants were restrained less by their desires than by their minority status. In Nîmes, they were highly violent. As Catholics did in other locations, Protestants deliberately humiliated their victims, apparently to frighten Nîmes’s remaining Catholics into submission. Cultural arguments alone cannot explain the Michelade; historians must also attend to issues of power.
    Metadata:
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    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1215/00161071-29-1-1
    Publisher:
    Duke University Press
    Pub. Date:
    2006-1-20
    Journal:
    French Historical Studies
    Volume:
    29
    Issue:
    1
    Page Range:
    1 - 36
    ISSN:
    0016-1071,1527-5493
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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