Louis XIV of France - Revocation of The Edict of Nantes

Revocation of The Edict of Nantes

It has traditionally been suggested that Madame de Maintenon pushed Louis to persecute Protestants and revoke the Edict of Nantes, which had awarded Huguenots political and religious freedom, but this is now being questioned. Louis himself saw the persistence of Protestantism as a disgraceful reminder of royal powerlessness. After all, the Edict was Henry IV's pragmatic concession to end the longstanding Wars of Religion. Moreover, since the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, the prevailing contemporary European principle to assure socio-political stability was cuius regio, eius religio— the religion of the ruler should be the religion of the realm.

Responding to petitions, Louis initially excluded Protestants from office, constrained the meeting of synods, closed churches outside Edict-stipulated areas, banned Protestant outdoor preachers, and prohibited domestic Protestant migration. He also disallowed Protestant-Catholic intermarriages where third parties objected, encouraged missions to the Protestants and rewarded converts to Catholicism. This discrimination did not encounter much Protestant resistance; and a steady conversion of Protestants occurred, especially among the noble elites.

In 1681, Louis dramatically increased his persecution of Protestants. The principle of cuius regio, eius religio generally had also meant that subjects who refused to convert could emigrate, but Louis banned emigration and effectively insisted that all Protestants must be converted. Secondly, following René de Marillac's and Louvois's proposal, he began quartering dragoons in Protestant homes. Although this was within his legal rights, the dragonnades inflicted severe financial strain on Protestants and atrocious abuse. Between 300,000 and 400,000 Huguenots converted, as this entailed financial rewards and exemption from the dragonnades.

On 15 October 1685, Louis issued the Edict of Fontainebleau, citing the redundancy of privileges for Protestants given their scarcity after the extensive conversions. The Edict of Fontainebleau revoked that of Nantes, and repealed all the privileges that arose therefrom. By his edict, therefore, Louis no longer suffered Protestant groups, pastors or churches to exist in France. No further churches were to be constructed, and those already existing were to be demolished. Pastors could choose either exile or a secular life. And those Protestants who had resisted conversion were now forcibly baptised into the established Church.

Writers have debated Louis's reasons for the Edict of Fontainebleau. He may have been seeking to placate the Pope, with whom relations were tense and whose aid was necessary to determine the succession crisis in Cologne. Or he may have acted to upstage Leopold I and regain international prestige after the latter defeated the Turks without Louis's help. Or he may simply have desired to end the remaining divisions in French society dating to the Wars to Religion by fulfilling his coronation oath to eradicate heresy.

All the same, some have condemned the Edict as gravely harmful to France. In support, they cite the approximately 200,000 Huguenots (roughly one-fourth of the Protestant population, or 1% of the French population) who defied royal decrees and fled France for various Protestant states, taking their skills with them. On the other hand, there are others who see this as an exaggeration. They argued that, notwithstanding the departure of many, most of France's preeminent Protestant businessmen and industrialists converted and remained. What is certain is that reaction to the Edict was mixed. Even while French Catholic leaders exulted, the Pope, still arguing with Louis over Gallicanism, criticised the use of violence. Protestants across Europe were horrified at the treatment of their coreligionists, but most Catholics in France applauded the move. Nonetheless, what is sure is that Louis's public image in most of Europe, especially in Protestant regions, was dealt a severe blow.

In the end, however, despite renewed tensions at the end of his reign, Louis may have helped ensure his successor would experience fewer instances of the religion-based disturbances that had plagued his forebears. French society would sufficiently change by the time of his descendant, Louis XVI, to welcome toleration in the form of the 1787 Edict of Versailles, also known as the Edict of Tolerance. This restored to non-Catholics their civil rights and the freedom to openly worship.