Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II FROM THE PUBLICATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES TO ITS REVOCATION 1598-1685 By the Edict of Nantes all former treaties between Catholics and Protestants were confirmed, verdicts for past offences were annulled, prisoners and galley slaves were set free, and Huguenots restored to full rights of citizenship. Yet in the matter of public worship they were still subordinate, for while Catholic worship was permitted in all Protestant towns, Protestant worship was forbidden in Paris, and limited to other towns where it had once been publicly established.1 This Edict was recorded by all provincial Parliaments as "perpetual and irrevocable," and was so sworn to by all the courts, governors, magistrates and principal citizens of the realm. After the death of Henri IV, the 1 The Edict has been celebrated as one of the first victories of toleration and liberty. But in fact it entailed disastrous consequences for the future development of Protestantism in France. The Protestant creed, in spite of persecutions, wars and the massacre of St. Bartholomew, was so well rooted in France that in 1598 there were more than 300 towns or villages and some 2,000 parishes where mass had not been celebrated for many years. The Edict of Nantes re-established mass everywhere, and on the other hand, assigned limits to the number of towns, parishes or castles, where the Reformed worship had a right to be observed. Regent, Marie de Medici, declared in the King's name that the observance of the Edict had "established secure tranquillity among his subjects: Wherefore ... although this Edict is perpetual and irrevocable, and . . . need not be confirmed, still . . . be it known, said and ordered that the aforesaid Edict . . . shall be maintained and held inviolable." Notwithstanding the brave vict...