La violence des frères

Trois protestants méridionaux face aux massacres perpétrés par leurs coreligionnaires au temps des guerres de religion

Laurent Ropp

Abstract

A study of the accounts of the massacres committed by Protestants, as found in the work of an anonymous Calvinist from Millau and in the writings of Jean Faurin and Jacques Gaches from the city of Castres, can be used to examine the views of these Reformed Protestants on the violence perpetrated by their co-religionists. They do not appear to conceal these acts, nor is there anything suggesting that they deliberately transformed the record of the events to the benefit of the Huguenots. However, the one-sided nature of their narratives does manifest itself when we consider the possibility that witnesses had to relativize the brutality of their co-religionists and when we consider their descriptions of the origins to the massacres. While Jean Faurin and the Millau Calvinist, who both wrote during the civil wars, express their approval on some killings, Jacques Gaches, who took up his pen after the return of peace, condemns the violence committed by Protestants even when they represent retaliatory acts.