The Edict of Versailles, also known as the Edict of Tolerance, was an official act that gave non-Catholics in France the access to civil rights formerly denied to them, which included the right to contract marriages without having to convert to the Catholic faith, but it denied them political rights and public worship. The edict was signed by King Louis XVI on 7 November 1787, and registered in the Parlement of Paris during the

Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France {{disambig ...

on 29 January 1788. Its successful enactment was caused by persuasive arguments by prominent French philosophers and literary personalities of the day, including Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot; Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, Americans such as

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a m ...

and especially the joint work of

Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (, 6 December 1721 – 22 April 1794), often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes, was a French statesman and minister in the Ancien Régime, and later counsel for the defense of Lou ...

, minister to Louis XVI, and

Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne (; 14 November 1743 – 5 December 1793) was a leader of the French Protestants and a moderate French revolutionary. Biography Jean-Paul Rabaut was born in 1743 in Nîmes, in the department of Gard, the son of Paul ...

, spokesman for the Protestant community in France. King Henry IV had granted Huguenots significant amount of freedom to practice their faith when he announced the

Edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was in essence completely Catholic. In the edict, Henry aim ...

on 13 April 1598. Those rights were revoked by Louis XIV during the

Edict of Fontainebleau The Edict of Fontainebleau (22 October 1685) was an edict issued by French King Louis XIV and is also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to practice their religion witho ...

(18 October 1685). Enforcement of the revocation relaxed under the reign of Louis XV, but the revocation remained law for a century. Under the Edict of Versailles,

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

continued as the state religion of the Kingdom of France, but relief was offered to non-Catholic worshippers: Calvinist Huguenots, Lutherans and Jews alike. Considering the long-standing dominance of the state religion, restrictions were still placed on non-Catholics around the country. The time's outliers were kept behind the scenes at the workplace and in educational settings to avoid misrepresenting the kingdom. The most notable example restriction was in Metz, whose Parlement's actions explicitly excluded certain rights for Jews within its domain, such as drafting of lists of grievances, unlike in the rest of France. The Edict of Versailles did not proclaim freedom of religion across France, which would occur only by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, but was an important step in pacifying religious tensions and officially ended religious persecution in France.

References

* Baird, Henry Martyn. ''History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France''. Kila, MT: Kessinger, 2006 * Kuiper, B. K. ''The Church in History''. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995 * Martyn, W. Carlos. ''A History of the Huguenots''. Ann Arbor: Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library, 2005 * Sutherland, N. M. ''The Huguenot Struggle for Recognition.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1980.

External links

Édit de Versailles (7 novembre 1787)
transcription of the original text, in French {{DEFAULTSORT:Edict of Versailles 1787 in France 1787 in law Louis XVI History of Catholicism in France Versailles Religion in the Ancien Régime Religion and politics Christianity and law in the 18th century Huguenot history in France 1787 in religion Edicts of toleration

See also

References

External links