NANTES, EDICT OF

A proclamation issued by henry iv of France, April 13, 1598, providing a measure of toleration, civil rights and liberties, and security for French huguenots. It contained 92 general articles signed by the king April 3, 1598, 56 particular or secret articles signed May 3, and three brevets. The first brevet gave an endowment of 45,000 crowns annually for the support of the clergy and churches of the Reformed Church; the second gave 180,000 crowns a year for the upkeep of garrisons in the fortified towns; the third distributed 23,000 crowns to certain Huguenot leaders. According to the general and particular articles: Roman Catholicism was restored and reestablished where it had previously been practiced, and any interference with divine service was forbidden; members of the Reformed religion were permitted to live without restriction anywhere in France and were allowed freedom of religious worship wherever they had been permitted to worship publicly by the edicts of 1577, 1596, and 1597, and in two towns in every bailiwick; they could not conduct services within five leagues of Paris, but services could be held in the homes of Huguenot nobles; they were granted complete civil liberties, including the right to hold public office and attend colleges and academies; they were permitted to hold synods and political meetings; special tribunals were authorized to settle disputes between Catholics and Huguenots, the one in the Parlement of Paris to consist of ten Catholics and six Protestants, the provincial parlements to have an equal number of Protestants and Catholics; the salaries of Protestant ministers were paid and some financial aid was provided for their colleges; the Huguenots were given 100 security areas or towns for eight years, the king was to pay the cost of the garrisons, and the governors of these towns were to be nominated by the king with the consent of the churches. The edict was registered in Paris and Grenoble in 1599; in Dijon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Aix, and Rennes in 1600; but not until 1609 in Rouen.

The edict was a compromise only. The "Politiques," who were particularly responsible for it, asserted that religious toleration was a matter of expediency rather than a matter of principle. The Catholic clergy opposed the granting to the Huguenots of freedom of conscience, civil liberty, the right to ecclesiastical assemblies, and state subsidies for the Protestant Church. The Protestants were unhappy about limitations imposed upon them, and fearful that the edict would be violated after Henry's death. The lease on the fortified towns was renewed in 1611 and thrice more until 1624, but soon after Henry's assassination (1610) there were violations of the edicṭ discrimination against Huguenots in employment, their exclusion from some professional schools, restrictions on public worship, destruction of some Protestant churches. An uneasy truce developed into open conflict. After the fall of La Rochelle in 1628, Louis XIII, on the advice of richelieu, issued the Edict of Alais (1629), depriving the Huguenots of all political rights and razing fortifications, but preserving religious liberties. After the peace of Alais, however, there was a gradual deterioration of the Huguenot religious position. Restrictions against them were more open under louis xiv, who revoked the edict on Oct. 18, 1685.

Bibliography: j. viÉnot, Histoire de la réforme française, 2v. (Paris 1926–34). j. faurey, L'Édit de Nantes et la question de la tolérance (Paris 1929). j. orcibal, Louis XIV et les protestants (Paris 1951). w. j. stankiewicz, Politics and Religion in Seventeenth-Century France (Berkeley 1960). l. pastor, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages, 40 v. (London-St. Louis 1938–61) 23:157–164.

[d. r. penn]