Edict of Nantes
(April 13, 1598) Law promulgated by
Henry IV of France to grant religious liberty and full civil rights to the Protestant
Huguenots. It stipulated that Protestant pastors were to be paid by the state, and public worship was permitted in most of the kingdom, though not in Paris. It also restored Catholicism in all areas where Catholic practice had been interrupted by the Wars of
Religion. The edict was resented by the Catholic clergy; Cardinal de
Richelieu annulled its political clauses in 1629, and the full edict was revoked by
Louis XIV in 1685.
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