by
Frans Pourbus the younger The Edict of Nantes that Henry IV signed had four basic texts, including a main text made up of 92 articles that was largely based on unsuccessful peace treaties signed during the recent wars. The edict also included 56 "particular" (secret) articles dealing with Protestant rights and obligations. For example, the French state guaranteed protection of French Protestants travelling abroad from the
Inquisition. "This crucifies me", protested
Pope Clement VIII upon hearing of the edict. The last two parts consisted of
brevets (
letters patent), which contained the military clauses and pastoral clauses. Both brevets were withdrawn in 1629 by
Louis XIII after a final religious civil war. The two
letters patent supplementing the edict granted the Protestants safe havens (
places de sûreté), which were military strongholds such as
La Rochelle, in support of which the king paid 180,000
écus a year, along with a further 150 emergency forts (
places de refuge), to be maintained at the Huguenots' own expense. Such an act of toleration was unusual in
Western Europe, where standard practice forced subjects to follow the religion of their ruler under the application of the principle of
cuius regio, eius religio. The edict granted religious toleration to the Protestant
Huguenots, who had been waging a long and bloody struggle for their rights in France. The main contents were: • Freedom of conscience and the right to practice their religion (Protestantism) in certain specified towns and cities throughout France. • The right to hold public office, including the right to serve as judges and administrators, without having to renounce their religion. • The right to maintain their own schools and universities, and to receive government funding for them. • The right to fortify their towns and cities for their own protection. • The right to maintain their own military forces (known as the "Huguenot militia"), which were to be paid for by the French government. • The right to engage in certain specified trades and professions, including the manufacture and sale of textiles and arms. • The right to travel freely throughout France, without being subject to searches or seizures of their property. • The right to bury their dead in their own cemeteries. The edict also upheld Catholicism's position as the established religion of France. Protestants gained no exemption from paying the
tithe and had to respect
Catholic holidays and restrictions regarding marriage. The authorities limited Protestant freedom of worship to specified geographic areas. The edict dealt only with Protestant and Catholic coexistence and made no mention of
Jews or
Muslims, who were offered temporary asylum in France when the
Marranos and
Moriscos were expelled from Spain. The original document that promulgated the edict has disappeared. The
Archives Nationales in Paris preserves only the text of a shorter document modified by concessions extracted from the King by the clergy and the
Parlement of Paris, which delayed ten months before finally signing and setting seals to the document in 1599. A copy of the first edict, sent for safekeeping to the Protestant
Geneva, survives. The provincial
parlements resisted the edict. The most recalcitrant of them was the
Parlement of Rouen, which unreservedly registered the edict only in 1609. The location of the signing is uncertain. The edict itself stated merely that it was "given at
Nantes, in the month of April, in the year of Our Lord one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight". By the late 19th century the Catholic tradition cited the signing in the Maison des Tourelles, the home of the prosperous Spanish trader André Ruiz, which was destroyed by bombing during the
Second World War. ==Revocation==