HUGUENOTS
395
HUGUENOTS
the war against the king, but the latter having obtain- ed absokition from the pope in 15'J5, notwithstanding the eftbrts of the Jesuits, who had sohl their intluencc to Spain, many forsook the league to join the royal standartl, and the duke of Mayeiuie was finally obliged to nialve peace with the king. On April 15, 1598, Hen- ry IV granted to the Protcstaiits, for whom he ever cherished great affection, the celebrated Edict o/iXantes (q. v.), consisting of ninety-one articles, by which the lluguenots were allowed to worship in tlieir own way throughout the kingdom, with the exception of a few towns; their ministers were to be supported by the state ; inability to hold offices was removed; their poor and sick were to be admitted to the hospitals ; and, final- ly, the towns given them as security were to remain in their hauils eight years longer. Pope Clement YlII became enraged at the concessions, and wrote Henry that " a decree which gave liberty of conscience to all was the most accursed that had ever been made." His inlhience was also used to induce Parliament to refuse its ajjproval to the edict, but it was finally registered in si)ite of Komish craftiness, Feb. 25, 1599.
Alter repeated attempts upon the life of the king, who had made liimself especially obnoxious to the Jesuits, he was eventually assassinated by Ravaillac IMay 14, 1610. Henry's second wife, Mary of Medicis, and her son Louis XHI, still a minor, now assumed the government. The edicts of toleration Avere by them also ratified; but, notwithstanding this public declaration on their part, they were practically disregarded and violated. When prince Henry H of Conde rose against tlie king in Nov. 1G15, the Protestants sided with him. By the treaty of Loudon, ilay 4, 161(5, their privileges were con- firmed ; but, at the instigation of the Jesuits, a new edict of 1620 restored Koman Catholicism as the official relig- ion of Beam, and decided that the Huguenots should be deprived of their churches. The latter resisted, headed by the princes of Kohan anil Soubise, and the war com- menced anew (in 1621), but this time proved unfavora- ble to the Protestants; yet at the peace of Montpellier, Oct. 21, 1622, the edict of Nantes was confirmed, and the Protestants only lost the right of holding assemblies. In 1622, Loins XHI called Richelieu, whom the pope had lately created cardinal, to his councils. Tlie power of the chancellor once tirmly established, he determined to crush the Huguenots, whose destruction lie considered essential to the unity and power of France, not so much on account of their religion, as on account of their polit- ical intluence at home, and particularly abroad. He ac- cordingly paid little attention to the stipulations of the treaty which the king had made with the Huguenots, and ]irovoked them to rebellion by all possible means. In 1625, while the government was involved in difficul- ties in Ital}', the Protestants improved the opportunity and rose in arms. Their naval force, under Soubise, beat the royal marine in several engagements, and car- dinal Richelieu found himself under the necessity of of- fering conditions of peace, wliich this time the Protes- tants very unwisely refused to accept. The cardinal now resolved to reduce La Rochelle, tlieir stronghold. A powerful army was assembled and marched on the doomed place, Richelieu combining in himself the func- tions of bishop, prime minister, and commander-in-chief. The lluguenots of Rochelle defended themselves with great bravery for more than a year, during which they endured the greatest privations. But their resistance was in vain ; even a fleet which tlie English had in- duced Charles I to send, under the command of the duke of Buckingham, to their assistance, was defeated off the Island of Rhe, Nov. 8, 1627. On the 28th of Oct. 1628, Richelieu rode into Roehelle by the king's side, in vel- vet and cuirass, at the head of tlie royal army, after wliich he proceeded to perform high mass in the church of St. IVIargaret, in celebration of his victory (compare Smiles, liu^. p. 118). The loss of La Rochelle was the death-blow to tlie Huguenots as a political power. As it was followed by the loss of all their otlicr strong-
holds, Nismas, Montauban, Castres, etc., they were no* left defenceless, and entirely dependent on the will of their conqueror. Richelieu, however, acting in a wise and tolerant spirit, refrained from pushing the advan- tages v/hich he had gained to extreme-s, and advised the publication of an edict which should grant the Prot- estants freedom of worship, no doubt actuated to this course by considerations of state policy, as he had just entered into a league with the Swedes and Germans, and needed the good-will of his Protestant subjects as much as that of the Romanists. June 27, 1629, jieace was con- cluded at Alais, and in the same year an edict followed, called "the Edict of Pardon," granting to the Protes- tants the same privileges as the edict of Nante.s, with exception of their strongholds, which were demolished, they ceasing to have political influence, and becoming distinguished as a party only by their religion. The reign of Louis XHI closed in 1629, and liis successor, Louis XIV, as well as cardinal IMazarin, the successor of Richeheu, who had died a short time before Louis, confirmed to the Protestants the riglits and privileges granted them ; and although they suflTered from a grad- ual defection of nobles, who, finding them no longer available for purposes of faction, now rejoined tlie old Church, they nevertheless enjoyed comparative freedom from persecution. ,