Here is part of my answer:
The St. Bartholomew massacre was not just one night and not just at Paris, and it was reprisal for a war which the Protestants had waged against France and the Catholics of France in the previous years. It was not the planned act of one man who wanted to terrorise, it was the accumulation of lots of private initiatives, with lots of grievances behind them. After the Wars of Religion, the King had simply given amnesty for all the war crimes committed by Protestants, including the very bloody deeds at Castres in 1568 under the personal orders of Coligny, one of the first to get killed later in the St. Bartholomew's massacre.
There were also Catholics who protected their Protestant neighbours instead of attacking them. Despite grievances.
Nevertheless, more died in l'Épuration, when the ones who had collaborated with Germans during WW-II were often killed.
I might be confusing the killing of 250 peasants in one go, because they resisted, with the martyrdom of a Dominican Friar in Castres, that may have been two separate occasions, but either way, Coligny was regarded as a war criminal, and in 1570 the Protestants had been promised complete amnesty for any and all war crimes. This was by some viewed as an injustice, like the people who made their own justice against collaborators in the occupation once the occupation was over in 1944, or like those resenting the amnesties given by for instance Argentina to Nazis.
I recommend this book:
La Saint-Barthélemy: Les mystères d'un crime d'État (24 août 1572) Pocket Book – October 19, 2017
French Edition by Arlette Jouanna (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Saint-Barth%C3%A9lemy-myst%C3%A8res-crime-dEtat-ao%C3%BBt/dp/2072748860/
A reviewer made this observation about the massacre itself:
Arlette Jouanna nous montre bien qu’en réalité, ce drame s’est déroulé en 2 phases consécutives. 1ère phase : le roi décide avec son Conseil, hors de tout cadre juridique, l’élimination physique de Coligny et de ses principaux compagnons, chefs des protestants. Ce massacre a lieu dans la nuit du 23 août et aux 1ères heures du 24. Coligny est défenestré, son corps traîné dans les rues, pendu et finalement décapité. Même les protestants qui vivaient au Louvre, à la cour, directement dans l’entourage de Charles IX, sont aussi tués dans la cour du château. La responsabilité du roi est donc ici entière. L’auteure parle pour cette phase d’une « ablation chirurgicale », comme pour un membre gangréné qu’il faudrait amputer. La 2e phase suit immédiatement, c’est le massacre de tous les protestants rencontrés, sans distinction d’âge, de sexe ou de milieu social. .... Les ordres du roi pour arrêter les exécutions ne sont absolument pas entendus et se poursuivent encore en septembre.
I translate:
Arlette Jouanna shows us that in reality, this drama has two consecutive phases. 1st phase: King and Council decide, totally extrajudicially, to physically eliminate Coligny and his foremost companions, the chief Protestant. This massacre takes place the night from 23:rd August to the first hours of the 24:th. Coligny is defenestrated, his body dragged through the streets, hung and finally decapitated. Even the Protestants who lived in the Louvre, at court, directly in the entourage of Charles IX, are also killed in the castle's courtyard. The responsibility of the King is here entire. The author uses of this phrase the extression "a surgical ablation" as for a gangrened member which one had to amputate. The 2nd phase follows immediately, it's the massacre of all the Protestants one met, no distinction of age, sex or social standing. ... The King's orders to cease the executions are absolutely not heard and continue into September.
For this second phase, I think the number of victims would be sth like 10 000. For the post-Occupation Épuration, I think the number is more like 40 000.
So, the "one night in Paris" as such had pretty few victims, but the week or two that followed had several thousand, but they were victims of the popular hatred. It's a very far cry from Ivan IV sending Opritchniki to kill all or at meast fairly much of Novgorod, including the bishop.
Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Boniface
5.VI.2024
In Frisia sancti Bonifatii, Episcopi Moguntini et Martyris. Hic de Anglia Romam venit, indeque a beato Gregorio Papa Secundo in Germaniam missus est ut Christi fidem illis gentibus evangelizaret, et, cum maximam ibi multitudinem, praesertim Frisonum, Christianae religioni subjugasset, Germanorum Apostolus meruit appellari; novissime in Frisia, a furentibus Gentilibus gladio peremptus, una cum Eobano Coepiscopo et quibusdam aliis servis Dei, martyrium consummavit.
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