The cathedral of Nantes. Henry IV of France by Frans Pourbus the younger. Louis XIV, King of France.

The Edict of Nantes was issued on April 30, 1598 by Henry IV of France to grant French Calvinists (also known as Huguenots) substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. The main concern was civil unity, and the Edict separated civil from religious unity, treated some Protestants for the first time as more than mere schismatics and heretics, and opened a path for secularism and tolerance. In offering general freedom of conscience to individuals, the edict offered many specific concessions to the Protestants, such as amnesty and the reinstatement of their civil rights, including the right to work in any field or for the State and to bring grievances directly to the king. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2048 × 1536 pixel, file size: 768 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Cathédrale de Nantes vue du Cours St Pierre. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2048 × 1536 pixel, file size: 768 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Cathédrale de Nantes vue du Cours St Pierre. ... Traditional city flag City coat of arms Motto: Favet Neptunus eunti (Latin: Shall Neptune favour the traveller) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country Region Pays de la Loire Department Loire-Atlantique (44) Mayor Jean-Marc Ayrault  (PS) (since 1989) City Statistics Land area¹ 65. ... Download high resolution version (488x770, 73 KB) The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Download high resolution version (488x770, 73 KB) The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Henry IV of France, also Henry III of Navarre (13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), ruled as King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. ... Henry IV of France, painted by Pourbous the younger Frans Pourbus the younger (1569 - 1622) was a Flemish painter, son of Frans Pourbus the elder and grandson of Pieter Pourbus. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (580x824, 90 KB)King Louis XIV of France painted by Hyacinthe Rigaud 1701 The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (580x824, 90 KB)King Louis XIV of France painted by Hyacinthe Rigaud 1701 The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of... An edict is an announcement of a law, often associated with monarchism. ... Traditional city flag City coat of arms Motto: Favet Neptunus eunti (Latin: Shall Neptune favour the traveller) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country Region Pays de la Loire Department Loire-Atlantique (44) Mayor Jean-Marc Ayrault  (PS) (since 1989) City Statistics Land area¹ 65. ... is the 120th day of the year (121st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events January 7 - Boris Godunov seizes the throne of Russia following the death of his brother-in-law, Tsar Feodor I. April 13 - Edict of Nantes - Henry IV of France grants French Huguenots equal rights with Catholics. ... Henry IV of France, also Henry III of Navarre (13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), ruled as King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Calvinism is a theological... In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name of Huguenots came to apply to members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France. ... In jurisprudence and law, a right is the legal or moral entitlement to do or refrain from doing something or to obtain or refrain from obtaining an action, thing or recognition in civil society. ... An edict is an announcement of a law, often associated with monarchism. ... Look up Civil in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The word Civil is derived from the Latin word civilis, from civis (citizen). Used as an adjective, it may describe several fields, concepts, and people: Civil death Civil defense Civil disobedience Civil engineering Civil law Civil liberties Civil libertarianism Civil marriage Civil... Religious is a term with both a technical definition and folk use. ... The word schism (IPA: or ), from the Greek σχίσμα, skhísma (from σχίζω, skhízō, to tear, to split), means a division or a split, usually in an organization or a movement. ... Look up Heretic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906), British writer who coined the term secularism. ... Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience) is the freedom of an individual to hold a viewpoint, or thought, regardless of anyone elses view. ... Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ...

The Edict aimed primarily to end the long-running, disruptive French Wars of Religion. Henry IV also had personal reasons for supporting the Edict. Prior to assuming the throne in 1589 he had espoused Protestantism, and he remained sympathetic to the Protestant cause: he had converted only in 1593 in order to secure his position as king, allegedly saying "Paris is worth a Mass". The Edict succeeded in restoring peace and internal unity to France. The French Wars of Religion were a series of conflicts fought between Catholics and Huguenots (Protestants) from the middle of the sixteenth century to the Edict of Nantes in 1598, including civil infighting as well as military operations. ...

The Edict of Nantes that Henry signed comprised four basic texts, including a principal text made up of 92 articles and 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 to protect French Protestants travelling abroad from the Inquisition. "This crucifies me," protested Pope Clement VIII, upon hearing of the Edict. The final two parts consisted of brevets (royal promises) which contained the military clauses and pastoral clauses. These two brevets were withdrawn in 1629 by Louis XIII, following a final religious civil war. This article is about the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church. ... Pope Clement VIII (Fano, Italy, February 24, 1536 – March 3, 1605 in Rome), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was Pope from January 30, 1592 to March 3, 1605. ... Louis XIII (September 27, 1601 - May 14, 1643), called the Just (French: le Juste), was King of France from 1610 to 1643. ...

The Edict granted the Protestants fifty places of safety (places de sureté), which were military strongholds such as La Rochelle for 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 (for Eastern E. see Mehmed II's Firman or Warsaw Confederation), where standard practice forced subjects to follow the religion of their ruler — the application of the principle of cuius regio, eius religio. La Rochelle is a city and commune of western France, and a seaport on the Atlantic Ocean (population 78,000 in 2004). ... The term écu may refer to one of several French coins. ... Mehmed II (Ottoman Turkish: محمد ثانى , Turkish: ), (also known as el-Fatih (الفاتح), the Conqueror, in Ottoman Turkish, or, in modern Turkish, Fatih Sultan Mehmet) (March 30, 1432 – May 3, 1481) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to 1446, and later from 1451 to 1481. ... The Warsaw Confederation (January 28, 1573) was an important event in the history of Poland, and is considered as the beginning of religious freedom in Poland The religious tolerance in Poland had much longer tradition and was de facto policy during the reign of the recently deceased king Sigismund II... Cuius regio, eius religio is a phrase in Latin that means, Whose the region is, his religion. ...

While it granted certain privileges to Protestants, the edict reaffirmed Catholicism 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; it made no mention of Jews or Muslims. In fact, France expelled its Muslim population in 1610. A tithe (from Old English teogoþa tenth) is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a (usually) voluntary contribution or as a tax or levy, usually to support a Jewish or Christian religious organization. ... The calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organising a liturgical year on the level of days by associating each day with a saint, and referring to the day as the saints day of that saint. ... There is also a collection of Hadith called Sahih Muslim A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Persian: Mosalman or Mosalmon Urdu: مسلمان, Turkish: Müslüman, Albanian: Mysliman, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of the religion of Islam. ... // Events January 7 - Galileo Galilei discovers the Galilean moons of Jupiter. ...

The original Act signed on April 30, promulgating the Edict, has disappeared. The Archives Nationales in Paris preserves only the text of a shorter document modified by the clergy and the Parlement of Paris, signed and sealed in 1599. A copy of the first edict sent for safekeeping to Protestant Geneva survives. is the 120th day of the year (121st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Archives nationales (in French; English: National archives), established in their present form in 1806, preserve the national archives of the French state, apart from the archives of the Ministère de la défense (Ministry of Defence) and the Ministère des affaires étrangères (Ministry of Foreign Affairs... This article is for the Ancien Régime institution. ... Geneva (pronunciation //; French: Genève //, German:   //, Italian: Ginevra //, Romansh: Genevra) is the second most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich), and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). ...

In October 1685, Louis XIV, the grandson of Henry IV, renounced the Edict and declared Protestantism illegal with the Edict of Fontainebleau. This act, commonly called the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had very damaging results for France. While the wars of religion did not re-ignite, many Protestants chose to leave France, most moving to Great Britain, Prussia, the Dutch Republic and Switzerland. This exodus deprived France of many of its most skilled and industrious individuals, who would from now on aid France's rivals in Holland and England. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes also further damaged the perception of Louis XIV abroad, making the Protestant nations bordering France even more hostile to his regime. Upon the revocation of the edict, Frederick Wilhelm issued the Edict of Potsdam, which encouraged Protestants to come to Brandenburg. “Sun King” redirects here. ... The Edict of Fontainebleau (October 1685) was an edict issued by Louis XIV of France, best known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes of 1598, which had granted to the Huguenots the right to worship their religion without persecution from the state. ... For other uses, see Prussia (disambiguation). ... Map of Dutch Republic by Joannes Janssonius United Netherlands redirects here. ... Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg. ... Upon learning of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by the Edict of Fontainebleau (October 1685), Fredrich Wilhelm, the elector of Brandenburg, issued a proclamation giving French Huguenots safe passage to Berlin, offered them tax-free status for ten years, and allowed them to hold French-language services. ... The Brandenburg-Prussian state was formed in 1618 when the Duchy of Prussia came under the control of the Elector of Brandenburg (part of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation). ...

See also

• Peace of Vervins
• Warsaw Confederation (1573)
• Freedom of religion
• List of treaties
• Michel de l'Hôpital, a precursor to Henry IV’s policies.
• Edict of Toleration