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That's interesting...

I just heard something very interesting from the "Atheist Experience". There is an episode co hosted by AronRa where Aron states that the US was founded on the freedom of religion and by extension then freedom FROM religion (that's not the interesting bit). But when he explains it (I am sure to show way to much ignorance here...) he says that in France and England Catholics were openly "hunting" Protestants in the streets. I actually have never heard this before. I knew about the religious persecution that they were fleeing but I did not know that it was so brazen and flagrant. People were endorsed by the government to hunt down and kill opposition (infidels?) in the streets. Am I alone in not knowing this? (Crossing my fingers here...)

Tags: AronRa, belief, death, hunting, persecution, religion

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Permalink Reply by Brian Wood on June 29, 2011 at 11:16am

In what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 24 August – 3 October 1572, Catholics killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris. Similar massacres took place in other towns in the weeks following. The main provincial towns and cities experiencing the Massacre were Aix, Bordeaux, Bourges, Lyon, Meaux, Orleans, Rouen, Toulouse, and Troyes.^[20] Nearly 3,000 Protestants were slaughtered in Toulouse alone.^[21] The exact number of fatalities throughout the country is not known. On the 23–24 August, between about 2,000^[22] and 3,000^[23]^[24] Protestants were killed in Paris and between 3,000^[25] and 7,000 more^[26] in the French provinces. By 17 September, almost 25,000 Protestants had been massacred in Paris alone.^[27]^[28] Outside of Paris, the killings continued until the 3 October.^[27] An amnesty granted in 1573 pardoned the perpetrators.