St. Bartholomew's Day massacre published his "Discours contre Machievel" in 1576, which was printed in ten editions in three languages over the next four years. Gentillet held, quite wrongly according to Sydney Anglo, that Machiavelli's "books [were] held most dear and precious by our Italian and Italionized courtiers" (in the words of his first English translation), and so (in Anglo's paraphrase) "at the root of France's present degradation, which has culminated not only in the St Bartholemew massacre but the glee of its perverted admirers". In fact there is little trace of Machiavelli in French writings before the massacre, and not very much after,
The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve this is an anachronism, as the actual massacre took place on St Bartholomew's Day. The BBC Radio Collection release gives the title as, variously, The Massacre and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve. The packaging uses the title "The Massacre", but the accompanying booklet uses both titles. The CDs have "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve" printed on them and this is also the title announced by Peter Purves on the discs themselves. William Hartnell was on holiday during filming of episode two; the Doctor does not feature in the episode, and the Abbot appears in a pre-filmed scene only.