Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/329

 The Ascendency of Fjmice under Louis XIV 291 XI. It is our will and intention that the declarations rendered against the relapsed shall be executed according to their form and tenor. XII. As for the rest, liberty is granted to the said persons of the R.P.R., pending the time when it shall please God to enlighten them as well as others, to remain in the cities and places of our kingdom, lands, and territories subject to us, and there to continue their commerce, and to enjoy their possessions, without being subjected to molestation or hin- drance on account of the said R.P.R., on condition of not engaging in 1 the exercise of the said religion, or of meeting under pretext of prayers or religious services, of whatever nature these may be, under the penalties above mentioned of imprisonment and confiscation. 1 This do we give in charge to our trusty and well-beloved counselors, etc. Given at Fontainebleau in the month of October, in the year of grace 1685, and of our reign the forty- third. Huguenots to be un- molested. Opinions in regard to the expediency of the revocation of the edict naturally differed. Madame de Sevigne, the gentlest of women but most devout of Catholics, wrote : 11 You have doubtless seen the edict by which the king revokes that of Nantes. Nothing could be finer than all its provisions. No king has done or ever will do anything more honorable." 2 Saint-Simon, on the other hand, gives a somewhat lurid account of the criminal stupidity and the fearful results of the revocation. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, without the slight- est pretext or necessity, and the various proscriptions that 1 In spite of this seeming toleration, the Protestants, as heretics, were practically outlaws in France. To be outside the Catholic Church was to be outside the state. The priests kept the records of births and deaths and the registry of wills, and unless the Huguenots consented to have their marriages performed by the priests their children were regarded as illegitimate. 2 Letter of October 28, 1685, Correspondence, VII, p. 420. 342. Saint- Simon's angry ac- count of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.