Thursday, April 13, 2023

It is the 13th of April 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

As a cold war baby, I grew up thinking of the world as unipolar or bipolar- that is, there were one or two powers around which the rest of the world acted in concert or to the consternation of one or two world powers.

Early Modern Europe was not such a world. There were multiple leading powers that waxed and waned. If the Italians or Germans could unify, they might be a power to reckon with, but in the meantime, it was the Spanish Hapsburgs, the English Tudors, the French Valois, and numerous smaller countries with powerful mercenaries. And not to mention theological affinities for the likes of the Pope, the Catholic League, the Lutherans, the Calvinists, etc. For any one country to successfully emerge from the 16th century as a world power, they would need to harness both nationalists and the Christian faction of their choosing.

And it was Henry of Navarre, the French King Henry IV, who would successfully (for a time) forge these important national and religious bonds to set the French up for a 17th century of global expansion.

So- there are TOO MANY Henrys. And I’m just talking “Henri’s” leave the English Henry’s out of this. Henry of Navarre was one of the French Henrys of the “War of the Three Henrys” during the French Wars of Religion. One was a staunch Catholic- Henry of Guise. One was a moderate Catholic- the King Henry III of the French Valois line and the other was a Huguenot- A French Calvinist and king of Navarre. OK- so Henry of Guise the Catholic is murdered on orders of Henry III, but when Henry III is stabbed by a crazed Dominican friar, he realizes the country would be best under Henry of Navarre- especially if the Huguenot leader would become a Catholic.

As the story goes, Henry of Navarre- the Huguenot leader says that “Paris vaut bien une messe”- that is, “Paris is well worth a mass” and would convert to Catholicism in order to keep the peace in France amidst warfare all around Europe. 

It had been a few decades earlier that the Holy Roman Empire played with the idea of the confession of a ruler determining the confession of their territory (in other words, if your prince was Lutheran, you could be Lutheran). What Henry of Navarre- now Henry IV would do would take it a step further.

It was on this, the 13th of April in 1598, that his Edict of Nantes was signed. This would be a call for religious tolerance from a man who had been in both camps and from a country torn asunder by religious civil war for the past decades.

Now, Protestants could worship freely in their homes and in some 200 towns and estates across the country. And legally, they were now recognized to inherit from their families, attend French colleges and universities, and be afforded the same general rights as Catholics. 

This was a half-century ahead of the rest of mainland Western Europe which came to a similar agreement with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. With relative peace France could now prioritize its missionary efforts in the Ottoman Empire and its missionary and diplomatic efforts in the New World- France would be, for a time, the largest landholder in North America.

And though Henry IV would be the first of the Bourbon kings, later Bourbon Kings would not be so pacific towards non-Catholics. From his successor Louis XIIII and especially under Louis XIV, the protections afforded with the Edict of Nantes would be whittled away and then canceled with the revocation of the Edict with the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685 (which would ironically send more French into the rest of Europe and the New World). It wasn’t perfect, but it was a step towards religious tolerance and learning to live with the reality of the churches of the Reformation and Catholic Churches seeking peace in the West- and it took an initial step forward with the signing of the Edict of Nantes on this, the 13th of April in 1598.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary- a good word from the end of Colossians.

2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 13th of April 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose favorite Henrys include Navarre, Mancini, Clay, and Rollins (he’s rangy). He is Christopher Gillespie.

 The show is written and read by a man for whom there is one Henry above the rest- Henry Winkler- an all-around good dude and TV’s Fonzi, that is Arthur Fonzerelli- (hey!) I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.