Protestantism in France From Death of Henry IV to the Revolution - James Aitken Wylie

Chapter 5
Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes
THE Edict of Nantes was already in effect
repealed. There was hardly one of its provisions
which had not been set aside either by
interpretations which explained it away, or by
edicts which directly nullified it; and now scarcely
anything remained of that famous charter of
Huguenot rights, save the parchment on. which it
was written and the seals that attested its
stipulations and promises, which, read in the light
of the scenes that were being enacted all over
France, looked like mockery.[1] But the work must
be completed. The king judged that the hour had
now arrived for dealing the blow which should
extinguish for ever Protestantism in France. By the
advice of his counselors -- Father la Chaise, his
confessor; Madame de Maintenon, his wife; the
Chancellor Le Tellier, and Count Louvois -- the
king, on the 18th of October,[2] 1685, signed the
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