LaRochelle 1

Brayton LaRochelle

Professor Langer

History 1400

9 January 2015

The Rights to Kill

The “reformation” of the catholic faith in France was the beginning of a dispute that

lead to immense public anger and turmoil. It was, according to Davis, a major catalyst to an

ongoing series of riots that often left the streets and areas of practice quite literally in flames.

Her definition of riots were that of “religious violence,” and were almost a group of small wars,

not between organized militias, but French civilians of the Catholic and Protestant faiths. Her

goal was to discuss the accountability of the people participating in violent religious “rites.” She

goes on to explain how this riot is not the characteristic group of peasants, but of people who

are well established, and arguably intelligent, law-abiding-citizens. Davis believes that the rites

of violence practiced by both parties were viewed by the church and its followers as rights. She

argues that this masked the legal and moral ramifications that would normally rise as a result of

these actions, and excused them as an extension of their god’s will and not as acts of human

brutality.

Davis’ view on the ongoing riots throughout France were as a result not of political or

economic issues, but directly related to the ongoing holy dispute between the existing Catholics

and the newly reformed Protestant following. She describes the nature of a religious riot in
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contrast to other riots with examples such as “As food rioters bring their zeal to bear upon the

state of the grain market, so religious rioters bring their zeal to bear upon the state of men’s

relations to the sacred.” This is an example of how this riot was a direct attack on a group of

peoples as opposed to an idea such as the grain market. These riots were not protests against

the other religion as a whole, but instead acts that were, in the eyes of its participants,

obligations set before them by the founder of their faith, God himself. The attacks were brutal,

personal, and uncharacteristic of what would normally be viewed as acts that could be

performed by individuals who were, by any definition, people of good moral standing.

The riots included several forms of murder, torture, public humiliation, destruction of

the other party’s holy objects, and the persecution of common worshipers and religious leaders

alike. An example given of the Catholic torture of the Protestant people is, “There the crowd

could watch the traitor decapitated and disemboweled, his corpse quartered and the parts

borne off for public display in different sections of the town.” This was not just a one-sided

affair and she stated, “Lay people were sometimes attacked by Protestant crowds, too, such as

the festive dancers who were stoned at Pamiers and Lyon, and the worshippers who were killed

at Saint Mèdard’s Church.” The conflict was ongoing and happened predominantly on the

streets, but often in churches or even people’s homes.

The riots that were occurring at this time were especially strange because of the types

of people affiliated. It was not the prototypical group of peasants rioting in the streets. This

was, according to Davis, a widespread group of people. She mentioned, “More often, the social

composition of the crowds extended upward to encompass merchants, notaries and lawyers, as
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well as clerics.” This was a group of people that would never have a reputation of committing

even petty crimes, but are committing what should have been viewed as heinous and even

insane. Davis argues that the people’s view on the interpretation of these so-called rites of

passage masked the reality that these were acts that should never be committed on humans.

Furthermore, the people were not only morally blind to these acts, but quite the opposite. They

viewed these acts as their rights and saw them as a literal extension of Gods will; therefore

their acts were justified, or even necessary. Davis mentions, “So long as rioters maintained a

given religious commitment, they rarely displayed guilt or shame for their violence. By every

sign, the crowds believed their actions legitimate.”

According to Davis, the riots that were happening at this time in France were largely as a

result of the holy dispute between the Catholics and Protestants. These were riots that were

atypical for a series of reasons, due to the brutality of the crimes being committed and the type

of people involved. Davis argues that these people were acting as direct servants of their gods,

and committing crimes that were told to them in great detail by these religious rites. The

people were killing their peers over with no remorse because they were, in their eyes, doing

God’s bidding. They were interpreting these rites as not only a justification for their actions but

a force greater than them, obligating them to perform these deeds. She ends with her

observation, “Even in the extreme case or religious violence, crowds do not act in a mindless

way. They will to some degree have a sense that what they are doing is legitimate, the

occasions will relate somehow to the defense of their cause, and their violent behavior will

have some structure to it—here dramatic and ritual.”

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Davis, Natalie. “The Rites of Violence: Religious Riot in Sixteenth-Century France.” The Social Dimension

of Western Civilization. Ed 2. Richard M. Golden. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s. 2003. 53-65.

Electronic.