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The château of the dukes of Brittany at Nantes, from which the edict was promulgated
The château of the dukes of Brittany at Nantes, from which the edict was promulgated

The Edict of Nantes was issued on April 13, 1598[1] by Henry IV of France to grant the Calvinist Protestants of France (also known as Huguenots) substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. For other senses of this word see Château (disambiguation. A château (plural châteaux) is a Manor house or residence Nantes (Naoned Gallo: Naunnt) is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast An edict is an announcement of a Law, often associated with monarchism. Nantes (Naoned Gallo: Naunnt) is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast Events 1111 - Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. 1204 - The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople Henry IV (Henri IV ( 13 December 1553 &ndash 14 May 1610) ruled as King of France from 1589 to 1610 and as Henry III Calvinism (sometimes called the Reformed tradition, the Reformed faith, or Reformed theology) is a theological system and an approach to the Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France (or French Calvinists) from the sixteenth to the eighteenth A right is a legal or moral Entitlement or Permission. Rights are of vital importance in theories of Justice and deontological ethics As a Christian Ecclesiastical term Catholic —from the Greek adjective, meaning "general" or "universal"—is described The main concern was civil unity,[2] and the Edict separated civil from religious unity, treated some Protestants for the first time as more than mere schismatics and heretics, and opened a path for secularism and tolerance. An edict is an announcement of a Law, often associated with monarchism. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos The word schism (ˈsɪzəm or /ˈskɪzəm/ from the Greek σχίσμα skhísma (from σχίζω skhízō, "to tear to split" Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief especially a religion that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief Secularism is generally the assertion that governmental practices or institutions should exist separately from Religion or religious beliefs In offering general freedom of conscience to individuals, the edict offered many specific concessions to the Protestants, such as amnesty and the reinstatement of their civil rights, including the right to work in any field or for the State and to bring grievances directly to the king. Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience and freedom of ideas) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact viewpoint It marks the end of eight religious wars that tore apart the population of France during the second half of 16th century. The French Wars of Religion (1562 to 1598 between French Catholics and Protestants ( Huguenots involved both civil infighting

Contents

Background

The Edict aimed primarily to end the long-running, disruptive French Wars of Religion. The French Wars of Religion (1562 to 1598 between French Catholics and Protestants ( Huguenots involved both civil infighting Henry IV also had personal reasons for supporting the Edict. Prior to assuming the throne in 1589 he had espoused Protestantism, and he remained sympathetic to the Protestant cause: he had converted to Catholicism only in 1593 in order to secure his position as king, allegedly saying "Paris is worth a Mass". The Edict succeeded in restoring peace and internal unity to France, though it pleased neither party: Catholics rejected the apparent recognition of Protestantism as a permanent element in French society and still hoped to enforce religious uniformity, while Protestants aspired to parity with Catholics. "Toleration in France was a royal notion, and the religious settlement was dependent upon the continued support of the crown. "[3]

Re-establishing royal authority in France required internal peace, based on limited toleration enforced by the crown. Since royal troops could not be everywhere, Huguenots needed to be granted strictly circumscribed possibilities of self-defense. [4]

The edict

Henry IV of France by Frans Pourbus the younger.
Henry IV of France by Frans Pourbus the younger. Henry IV (Henri IV ( 13 December 1553 &ndash 14 May 1610) ruled as King of France from 1589 to 1610 and as Henry III Frans Pourbus the younger (1569 - 1622 was a Flemish painter, son of Frans Pourbus the Elder and grandson of Pieter Pourbus.

The Edict of Nantes that Henry signed comprised four basic texts, including a principal text made up of 92 articles and largely based on unsuccessful peace treaties signed during the recent wars. The Edict also included 56 "particular" (secret) articles dealing with Protestant rights and obligations. For example, the French state guaranteed to protect French Protestants travelling abroad from the Inquisition. The term Inquisition can refer to any one of several institutions charged with trying and convicting heretics within the Roman Catholic Church and "This crucifies me," protested Pope Clement VIII, upon hearing of the Edict. Not to be confused with Antipope Clement VIII. Pope Clement VIII ( February 24, 1536 &ndash March 3, 1605 The final two parts consisted of brevets (letters patent) which contained the military clauses and pastoral clauses. Letters patent are a type of Legal instrument in the form of an Open letter issued by a Monarch or Government, granting an office right These two brevets were withdrawn in 1629 by Louis XIII, following a final religious civil war. For the cognac see Louis XIII de Rémy Martin. Louis XIII ( September 27, 1601 – May 14, 1643)

The two letters patent[5] supplementing the Edict granted the Protestants places of safety (places de sureté), which were military strongholds such as La Rochelle, in support of which the king paid 180,000 écus a year, along with a further 150 emergency forts (places de refuge), to be maintained at the Huguenots' own expense. Letters patent are a type of Legal instrument in the form of an Open letter issued by a Monarch or Government, granting an office right La Rochelle is a city in western France, and a Seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. This article is about the medieval and early modern French currency not the European Currency Unit (ECU or an Electronic control unit (ECU Such an act of toleration was unusual in Western Europe,[6] where standard practice forced subjects to follow the religion of their ruler — the application of the principle of cuius regio, eius religio. Cuius regio eius religio is a phrase in Latin that means "Whose region his Religion "

While it granted certain privileges to Protestants, the edict reaffirmed Catholicism as the established religion of France. Protestants gained no exemption from paying the tithe[7] and had to respect Catholic holidays and restrictions regarding marriage. A tithe (from Old English teogoþa "tenth" is a one-tenth part of something paid as a (usually voluntary contribution or as a Tax or levy The Calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a Liturgical year on the level of days by associating each day with one or more Saints The authorities limited Protestant freedom of worship to specified geographic areas. The Edict dealt only with Protestant and Catholic coexistence; it made no mention of Jews, or of Muslims, who were offered temporary asylum in France when the Moriscos were being expelled from Spain. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion A morisco (Spanish " Moor -like" or mourisco (Portuguese was any Muslim of Spain or Portugal [8]

The original Act signed on April 30, promulgating the Edict, has disappeared. Events 313 - Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule The Archives Nationales in Paris preserves only the text of a shorter document modified by concessions extracted from the King by the clergy and the Parlement of Paris, which delayed ten months, before finally signing and setting seals to the document in 1599. The Archives nationales ( French for "National Archives" preserve the national Archives of the French state, apart from the archives of the This article is for the Ancien Régime institution For the post-Revolutionary and present-day institution see French Parliament. A copy of the first edict, sent for safekeeping to Protestant Geneva, survives. Geneva (Genève is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French -speaking The provincial parlements resisted in their turn; the most recalcitrant, the parlement of Rouen, did not unreservedly register the Edict until 1609. [9]

Revocation

Main article: Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
Louis XIV, by Hyacinthe Rigaud
Louis XIV, by Hyacinthe Rigaud

The Edict remained in unaltered effect, registered by the parlements as "fundamental and irrevocable law", with the exception of the brevets, which had been granted for a period of eight years, and were renewed by Henry in 1606 and in 1611 by Marie de Médecis, who confirmed the Edict within a week of the assassination of Henry, stilling Protestant fears of another St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. The Edict of Fontainebleau (October 1685 was an Edict issued by Louis XIV of France, also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes of Hyacinthe Rigaud ( Hiacint Riagau) ( July 20, 1659 – December 27, 1743) was a French painter of Catalan origin The St Bartholomew's Day massacre ( Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy in French) was a wave of Roman Catholic Mob violence against the Huguenots The subsidies had been reduced by degrees, as Henry gained more secure control of the nation. [10]By the peace of Montpellier in 1622, concluding a Huguenot revolt in Languedoc, the fortified Protestant towns were reduced to two, La Rochelle and Montauban. La Rochelle is a city in western France, and a Seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. Montauban ( Montalban in Occitan) is a town and commune of southwestern France, Préfecture (capital of the Tarn-et-Garonne The brevets were entirely withdrawn in 1629, by Louis XIII, following the Siege of La Rochelle, in which Cardinal Richelieu blockaded the city for fourteen months. For the cognac see Louis XIII de Rémy Martin. Louis XIII ( September 27, 1601 – May 14, 1643) The Siege of La Rochelle was a result of a war between the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France and the Huguenots of La Rochelle in 1627-1628 This article is about a cardinal For information on the Russian also called The Red Eminence, see Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov.

During the remainder of Louis XIII's reign, and especially during the minority of Louis XIV, the implementation of the Edict varied year by year, voiced in declarations and orders, and in case decisions in the Council, fluctuating according to the tides of domestic politics and the relations of France with powers abroad. [11]

In October 1685, Louis XIV, the grandson of Henry IV, renounced the Edict and declared Protestantism illegal with the Edict of Fontainebleau. Early years Birth and ancestry Louis XIV was born in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye on September 5 1638 and bore the Heir apparent The Edict of Fontainebleau (October 1685 was an Edict issued by Louis XIV of France, also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes of This act, commonly called the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had very damaging results for France. While the wars of religion did not re-ignite, many Protestants chose to leave France, most moving to Great Britain, Prussia, the Dutch Republic, Switzerland and the new French colonies in North America. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands Prussia ( Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Prūsija Prūsija Prusy Old Prussian: Prūsa) was most recently a historic state "United Netherlands" redirects here For the "Kingdom of the United Netherlands" see United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation [12] This exodus deprived France of many of its most skilled and industrious individuals, who would from now on aid France's rivals in Holland and England. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes also further damaged the perception of Louis XIV abroad, making the Protestant nations bordering France even more hostile to his regime. Upon the revocation of the edict, Frederick Wilhelm issued the Edict of Potsdam, which encouraged Protestants to come to Brandenburg. Frederick William (Friedrich Wilhelm February 16 1620 &ndash April 29 1688) was the Elector of Brandenburg and the The Edict of Potsdam (Edikt von Potsdam was a proclamation issued by Frederick William Elector of Brandenburg, in Potsdam on 29 October 1685 Brandenburg-Prussia (Brandenburg-Preußen was a German Monarchy established by the Personal union between the Duchy of Prussia and the

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The Edict itself states merely that it is "given at Nantes, in the month of April, in the year of Our Lord one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight". An edict of toleration is a declaration made by a government or ruler and states that members of a given Religion will not be persecuted for engaging in their religious practices A detailed chronological account of the negotiations that led to the Edict's promulgation has been offered by Janine Garrisson, L'Édit de Nantes: Chronique d'une paix attendue (Paris: Fayard) 1998.
  2. ^ In 1898 the tricentennial celebrated the Edict as the foundation of the coming Age of Toleration; the 1998 anniversary, by contrast, was commemorated with a book of essays under the evocatively ambivalent title, Coexister dans l'intolérance (Michel Grandjean and Bernard Roussel, editors, Geneva, 1998).
  3. ^ George A. Rothrock, Jr. , "Some Aspects of Early Bourbon Policy toward the Huguenots" Church History 29. 1 (March 1960:17-24) p. 17.
  4. ^ Rothrock, loc. cit. .
  5. ^ Texts published in Benoist 1693 I:62-98 (noted by Rothrock).
  6. ^ For Eastern Europe, see Mehmed II's Firman on the Freedom of the Bosnian Franciscans or the Warsaw Confederation. The Warsaw Confederation ( January 28, 1573) an important development in the History of Poland and Lithuania, is considered the formal beginning
  7. ^ The King engaged to support the Protestant ministers in part recompense.
  8. ^ The ordonnance of 22 February 1610 stipulated that the emigrés settle north of the of the Dordogne (safely away from the manipulations of Spanish agents) and that they embrace the Catholic faith; those who did not wish to do so were granted right of passage to French ports on the Mediterranean, to take ship for Barbary. Dordogne (Dordonha is a department in central France named after the Dordogne River. The Barbary Coast, or Barbary, was the term used by Europeans from the 16th until the 19th century to refer to the middle and western coastal regions of North Africa—what (L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 2005:318). By the time the ordonnance was published Henri IV had been assassinated.
  9. ^ Rothrock 1960:23 note 6.
  10. ^ A point made in Rothrock 1960:19.
  11. ^ Ruth Kleinman, "Changing Interpretations of the Edict of Nantes: The Administrative Aspect, 1643-1661" French Historical Studies 10. 4 (Autumn 1978:541-571.
  12. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_French_in_Louisville

Sources

The source followed by most modern historians is the Huguenot refugee Elie Benoist's Histoire de l'édit de Nantes, 3 vols. (Delft, 1693-95). E. G. Léonard devotes a chapter to the Edict of Nantes in his Histoire général du protestantisme, 2 vols. (Paris) 1961:II:312-89.

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