Midnight, August 24, 1572. The young king of France, sweating and trembling, gave the fateful order. At his word, a single pistol shot was fired. As the reverberation shook the hall, the king’s face paled. He was only partially aware of what he had done, but the horror of his order filled him with dread.
The young monarch knew only a tiny fraction of the dastardly deed his own mother and the Duke of Guise had orchestrated. By the next morning, the king would long to recall that fateful order. But the smoking pistol testified that the moment for royal intervention was over. The deed was done.
By that one pistol shot in the darkness of night, the king of France had ordered the massacre of tens of thousands of his own subjects. It was St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572. The infamous “St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre” had begun.
The trembling young king of France, Charles IX, awaited the results of his signal. After a few moments of intense silence, a great bell began to toll. Across the city of Paris, armed men swarmed from houses, citadels, and churches. The moment had arrived! What the king had thought would be a mere purging of the Huguenot (French Protestant) leaders, unbeknownst to him, this event was to become a widespread massacre.
The first target on the Duke of Guise’s hit list was the most honorable Frenchman of his day, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. The noble, old admiral was murdered in his bedroom, and his mangled body was thrown out through the window! With his death, the order was given for a general massacre to begin. Soon the streets of Paris were stained red from the blood of thousands of Huguenots—men, women, and children who were dragged from their homes and butchered just because they were Huguenots, notwithstanding the fact that they were the most loyal, hardest working, and most pious of French citizens.
As the massacre intensified, the youthful king of France thought of one man whom he must and could save—his private doctor, a good and faithful man. This skilled French physician was a committed Huguenot and a pious, humble Christian. Charles IX, young but of frail health, loved his doctor and could not bear the thought of his doctor being murdered simply because he was a Huguenot! Not wanting his dear physician to share Admiral de Coligny’s fate, Charles IX hurried to where his physician slept and ushered him into his own royal bedchamber for safekeeping.
Dr. Ambroise Paré was one of the few Huguenots in Paris to survive that terrible massacre. It is good for the world that he did survive that night’s horrors! The contributions of this one doctor have dramatically affected the practice of medicine, particularly in the treatment of wounds. However, few Frenchmen know this man’s contributions, and most Americans have never heard his name at all.
Before Dr. Paré, the standard medical procedure of wound treatment was to cauterize the wound, often with boiling oil. For example, when a soldier’s arm was severed in battle, the injured man would be taken to the rear of the army to the medical doctors. There, the doctors would surround the patient and, with brute force, dip his arm into a cauldron of boiling oil.
The extreme pain of the oil on the wound would sometimes kill a man, especially if he was already in shock. Even with less severe injuries, such as gunshot wounds and spear penetrations, boiling oil was often used to cauterize and prevent further loss of blood. Although this method sometimes worked, Dr. Paré wanted to find a kinder, more effective way to treat wounds.
The doctor was perplexed by the problem of how to treat gunshot wounds without using hot oil to cauterize the wound. One day, while working during a battle, Dr. Paré ran out of his supply of boiling oil. In place of the torturous usual method, he substituted a mixture of egg yolks, turpentine, and rose oil. This substitute achieved the desired result!
Dr. Paré also revolutionized the treatment of wounds on the battlefield by using horse-drawn ambulances. Prior to this, injured soldiers remained on the battlefield until the engagement was over. These men were then often put to the sword by the victors.
His work with wound treatment continued. Dr. Paré also experimented with another possible method. Revived from the days of the ancient Greeks and Romans, the procedure was called “the ligature of arteries.” This ancient method involved tying up arteries following amputation. Eventually, this revived treatment by Dr. Paré made the days of the severed arm being dipped in boiling oil an obsolete practice. Many amputees in the coming wars of the next few centuries would be grateful that a Huguenot doctor in the 1500s made a way to dispense with the dreaded pot of searing oil in a wound!
As a result of his dedication to compassionate wound care, Dr. Paré wrote and published a book titled The Method for Treating Wounds Made by Harquebuses and Other Firearms. This was the first medical book written in French, as all previous medical books used in France were written in Latin. Dr. Paré was considered “uneducated” because he did not use Latin. In spite of this, he was selected to be the private physician for four successive French monarchs.
Dr. Paré’s other contributions to medicine were many and varied. He invented an array of several useful surgical instruments, as well as developing several new surgical techniques. He also supervised the crafting of artificial arms and legs for the maimed soldiers whose lives he had saved.
He also made several important and valuable advances in the field of obstetrics. Dr. Paré revived the ancient practice of podalic version, the delivery of a baby feetfirst in certain dangerous cases when a baby is in a breech position. The lives of many mothers and babies were spared by this practice.
Above all, Dr. Ambroise Paré was a humble, sincere Christian. When he was congratulated for a successful, yet difficult cure, he liked to correct his admirer with a smile and the response, “I treated him. God cured him.”
Charles IX, by his order, killed tens of thousands. At the same time and in the same room, his doctor lived to save even more lives than the bloody day would destroy. Because Charles IX could not bear to see the humble, meek physician fall prey to the brutal deception of the Guise family, he had hid the good doctor. The royal clothes closet had provided a sanctuary where the doctor could be spared for further usefulness to the practice of medicine. The goodness of God was manifested in the life of this faithful doctor who served his generation with great care and compassion.
Sources and Further Reference:
Foote, William Henry. The Huguenots: Or, Reformed French Church. Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 2002.