After half a century of civil wars and massacres it terminated in Henry IV., a Protestant king, who turned Catholic, but who gave Protestants the edict of Nantes; a precious, though insufficient and precarious pledge, which served France as a point of departure towards religious liberty, and which protected it for nearly a century, in the midst of the brilliant victory won by Catholicism.

[The edict of Nantes, published by Henry IV.

in 1598, was revoked by Louis XIV.

in 1685.] For more than three centuries civilized Europe has been discussing, pro or con, the question of religious liberty, but from instinct and with passion far more than with a serious understanding of what is at the bottom of things.

Even in our own day it is not without difficulty that a beginning is being made to understand and accept that principle in its true sense and in all its bearings.