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

France, to carry thence the beautiful and varied
fabrics which her ingenious sons had worked on
her looms and forged on her anvils, from this time
all but disappeared. The art and genius which
created these marvels had transferred themselves to
Germany, to Holland, to England, and to Scotland,
where they had taken root, and were producing
those implements with which France had been
accustomed to enrich other nations, but which now
she had to beg from her neighbors.
Thus strangely did that country defeat what had
been the grand object of her policy for half a
century. Her aim all through the administrations of
Richelieu and Mazarin was to consolidate her
power, and lead in the councils of Europe. But this
one act of Louis XIV did more to weaken France
than all that Richelieu and Mazarin had done to
strengthen her. Not only did Louis weaken the
fabric of his own power, he enhanced the strength
of that interest which it was his great object to
abase. The learning, the genius, the art which were
the glory of his realm, and would have been the
bulwark of his throne, he drove away and scattered
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