St. Bartholomew's Day massacre late-night vigil, with the hundreds of thousands of young people who were in Paris for the celebrations, he made the following comments: "On the eve of Aug. 24, we cannot forget the sad massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, an event of very obscure causes in the political and religious history of France. ... Christians did things which the Gospel condemns. I am convinced that only forgiveness, offered and received, leads little by little to a fruitful dialogue, which will in turn ensure a fully Christian reconciliation. ... Belonging to different religious traditions must not constitute today a source of opposition
Paris in the 16th century judges was created, the ancestor of the modern tribunes of commerce, which took away the power of the guilds to settle commercial disputes. The Roman Catholic Church in Paris was closely aligned with the Crown; the Bishops of Paris were chosen not because of the religious virtues, but because of their membership in prominent aristocratic families close to the King. Five important new churches were built in the Paris in the 16th century, the largest of which was Saint-Eustache near the central market of Les Halles. Throughout the century, Paris was a fortress of the traditional Roman Catholic faith. However,