638 Outlines of European History Assassination of Henry IV, 1610 Richelieu ground that " Paris was worth a mass." He did not forget his old friends, however, and in 1598 he issued the Edict of Nantes. By this edict of toleration the Calvinists were permitted to hold services in all the towns and villages where they had pre- viously held them, but in Paris and a number of other towns all Protestant services were prohibited. The Protestants were to enjoy the same political rights as Catholics, and to be eligible to government offices. A number of fortified towns were to remain in the hands of the Huguenots, particularly La Rochelle, Montauban, and Nimes. Henry's only mistake lay in granting the Huguenots the right to control fortified towns. In the next generation this privilege aroused the suspicion of the king's minister, Richelieu, who attacked the Huguenots, not so much on religious grounds as on account of their independent position in the state, which suggested that of the older feudal nobles. Henry IV chose Sully, an upright and able Calvinist, for his chief minister. Sully set to work to reestablish the kingly power, which had suffered greatly under the last three brothers of the house of Valois. He undertook to lighten the tremendous burden of debt which weighed upon the country. He laid out new roads and canals, and encouraged agriculture and commerce ; he dis- missed the useless noblemen and officers whom the government was supporting without any advantage to itself. Had his ad- ministration not been prematurely interrupted, it might have brought France unprecedented power and prosperity ; but reli- gious fanaticism put an end to his reforms. In i6io Henry IV, like William the Silent, was assassinated just in the midst of his greatest usefulness to his country. Sully could not agree with the regent, Henry's widow, and so gave up his position and retired to private life. Before many years Richelieu, perhaps the greatest minister France has ever had, rose to power, and from 1624 to his death in 1642 he governed France for Henry IV's son, Louis XIII (16 1 0-1643). Something will be said of his policy in connec- tion with the Thirty Years' War (see section 113).
