The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

—;:REVOCATION OF NANTES' EDICT.S89turies of dominion which have been added to Rome she owesto her grand maxim, that no dissimulation is too profound,and no perfidy too gross, to be employed against Protestants.The last great national act of treachery on the part ofFrance was the revocation of the Edict of Nantes." Neverwas an edict, law, or treaty, more deliberately made, more solemnlyratified, more irrewcably established, more repeatedlyconfirmed ;nor one whereof policy, duty, or gratitude, couldhave more ensured the execution ;yet never was one morescandalously or absolutely violated. It was the result of threeyears' negotiation between the commissioners of the king andthe deputies of the Protestants,—was the termination of fortyyears' wars and troubles,—was merited by the highest services,sealed by the highest authority, registered inall the parliamentsand courts of Henry the Great,—was declared in thepreamble to be perpetual and irrevocable.'"*It was confirmedby the Queen-mother in1610, and repeatedly ratified bysucceeding monarchs of France ;yet all the while the purposeof overturning it was secretly entertained and steadilyand craftily prosecuted. The rights it conferred and theprivileges it guaranteed were gradually encroached uponoppressions cruel and manifold, contrary to the spirit andto the letter of the edict, were practised on the Protestantsand at last, in 1685, it was publicly revoked. When theoldChancellor Tellier, the Jesuit, signed the edict of revocation,full of joy at this consummation of the intrigues andnow lettest tlioulabours of his party, he cried out, ''Lord,thy s