The massacre of thousands of French Huguenots by Catholic mobs in 1572 enraged Protestants, who argued that they now had a right to resist the government because a contract had been broken. What was this contract, and why did its political significance go beyond the religious conflicts of the period?

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The Answer is Answer would ideally include the following. Huguenot pamphleteers proclaimed that the king, by failing to support the true religion, had broken the unwritten contract he had with his people. This reflected the doctrine of constitutionalism, the belief that a government's legitimacy rested on its upholding a constitution or contract between ruler and ruled. As a result, Huguenots proclaimed that they had the right to resist a tyrant, who in their eyes was an idol worshipper.

The Massacre of Thousands of French Huguenots by Catholic Mobs