Mérindol massacre
The Mérindol massacre took place in 1545, when Francis I of France ordered the Waldensians of the village of Mérindol to be punished for heresy. Provençal and papal soldiers killed hundreds or even thousands of Waldensian villagers.
Arrêt de Mérindol
Outside the
The Parlement of Provence issued the "Arrêt de Mérindol" on 18 November 1541.[2] This was confirmed in 1545 by Francis I after a series of appeals eventually failed. In April, Maynier raised an army of Provençal troops, who were joined by forces from the papal Comtat Venaissin against the Waldensians of Mérindol and Cabrières.[2]
The massacres
The leaders in the 1545 massacres were
These soldiers took the villages of Mérindol and Cabrières and also devastated neighbouring Waldensian villages.[1] Historians have estimated that the soldiers killed hundreds to thousands of people. They captured survivors and sent hundreds of men to forced labour in the French galleys. In total, they destroyed between 22 and 28 villages.[3][4] The execution of one young man, a servant, might well have been the first example of execution by firing squad in Europe for causes of ideology.[5]
In the aftermath, Pope
Notes
- ^ ISBN 0-631-22276-6.
- ^ ISBN 2-213-60143-7.
- ^ ISBN 0-521-27887-2.
- ^ Audisio, Gabriel (1998). Les Vaudois, p. 271.
- ISBN 0-674-48860-1.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-822930-5.
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