CHAPTER XL .-- --LOUIS XIII., CARDINAL RICHELIEU, THE CATHOLICS AND THE.
PROTESTANTS.
Cardinal Richelieu has often been accused of indifference towards the Catholic church; the ultramontanes called him the Huguenots' cardinal; in so speaking there was either a mistake or a desire to mislead; Richelieu was all his life profoundly and sincerely Catholic; not only did no doubt as to the fundamental doctrines of his church trouble his mind, but he also gave his mind to her security and her aggrandizement.

He was a believer on conviction, without religious emotions and without the mystic's zeal; he labored for Catholicism whilst securing for himself Protestant alliances, and if the independence of his mind caused him to feel the necessity for a reformation, it was still in the church and by the church that he would have had it accomplished.
Spirits more fervent and minds more pious than Richelieu's felt the same need.

On emerging from the violent struggles of the religious wars, the Catholic church had not lost her faith, but she had neglected sweetness and light.

King Henry IV.'s conversion had secured to her the victory in France, but she was threatened with letting it escape from her hands by her own fault.

God raised up for her some great servents who preserved her from this danger.
The oratorical and political brilliancy of the Catholic church in the reign of Louis XIV.