Innocent XI and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

Berkeley: University of California, 1930. First edition. Hardcover. g. Octavo. VII, [1], 231, [1]pp. Original blue cloth with gold lettering on spine. Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes as part of his efforts to ease the tensions between himself and Pope Innocent XI. Before its revocation, the Edict granted the Huguenots the right to worship as Protestants without persecution from the state. Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes included the order to destroy Huguenot churches, as well as close Protestant schools. The policy also led to a regime in which French Catholics, known as the dragonnades, forced Huguenots to convert to Catholicism at gunpoint. As a result of Louis’ persecution of the Huguenots, approximately 300,000 Huguenots fled France, many of them going to England. Initially, Innocent XI supported Louis XIV’s revocation of the edict of Nantes. The Huguenots were well-known for their criticisms of the methods of worship in the Roman Catholic Church, in particular the focus on ritual. Huguenots believed that icons of the Catholic Church did not lead to redemption. They viewed the Christian faith as something to be expressed in a strict and godly life, in obedience to Biblical laws, and in gratitude for God's mercy. This work shows that if Innocent XI supported the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he did not support the religious persecution and forced conversion of the Huguenots. “The confusion arising from the edict and the concern with Innocent’s reception may be dispelled. Toward that aim one should distinguish between the edict of revocation and the force used as an instrument of conversion. Innocent approved the former; he condemned the latter.” Spine slightly sunned, and minor shelf wear. Minor offsetting on endpapers. Binding in overall good, interior in very good condition.