The Edict of Versailles, also known as the Edict of Tolerance, was an official act that gave non-Catholics in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

the access to civil rights formerly denied to them, which included the right to contract marriages without having to convert to the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

faith, but it denied them political rights and public worship. The edict was signed by King

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

on 7 November 1787, and registered in the

Parlement of Paris The Parliament of Paris (french: Parlement de Paris) was the oldest ''parlement'' in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. It was fixed in Paris by Philip IV of France in 1302. The Parliament of Paris would hold sessions inside the ...

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 Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne ( ; ; 10 May 172718 March 1781), commonly known as Turgot, was a French economist and statesman. Originally considered a physiocrat, he is today best remembered as an early advocate for economic lib ...

;

Étienne François, duc de Choiseul Étienne François, Marquis de Stainville, Duc de Choiseul, KOHS, OGF (28 June 17198 May 1785) was a French military officer, diplomat and statesman. From 1758 to 1761 and from 1766 to 1770, he was Foreign Minister of France and had a strong ...

, Americans such as

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

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 P ...

, spokesman for the Protestant community in France. King Henry IV had granted

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss politica ...

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 aimed pr ...

on 13 April 1598. Those rights were revoked by

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

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 without s ...

(18 October 1685). Enforcement of the revocation relaxed under the reign of

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

, 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

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, but relief was offered to non-Catholic worshippers:

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

Huguenots,

Lutherans Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

and

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

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 Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

, 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 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolu ...

, 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 The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

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