DE LA SALLE MONTHLY.

VOL. V. JULY, 1871.-No. 1.

LOUIS XIV.

BY ROLYAT.

Torn by religious wars, intimidated mother. The latter having thus happiby the insurrection of the Fronde, har- ly given birth to a son after twenty-two assed by the revolt of Conde and Tu- years of sterility, the simple and enthurenne, France presented a woful picture siastic attributed the circumstance to a during the joint reigns of Cardinal Rich- supernatural agency, and hence called elieu and Louis XIII. The subsequent the young heir to the throne of the unhappy administration of Cardinal Capets, Dieu Donne. By his father's Mazarin served but to augment the demise, May 14, 1643, Louis XIV., at evils which then sorely afflicted France, the age of five years, inherited the crown and to kindle a conflagration which threatened the existence of the entire nation.

of France, at the age of thirteen was de-
clared to have attained his majority, and
at the age of twenty-two years ascended
the throne. Meeting the wild and an-
tagonistic elements which rent asunder
his unhappy country with that marked
determination characteristic of his en-
tire administration, striking an effectual
blow at the foundation of civil strife, he
uprooted with a strong arm the influ-
ences which had drawn so many misfor-
tunes on the land. The instant he re-
ceived the reins of government, Louis
bent his energies to the task of guiding
the ship of state swiftly and securely out

The belligerent Spaniard at her very portals, civil conflict and insubordination agitating her within, discord, dissatisfaction and dissensions supreme, France in the seventeenth century closely resembled France of to-day. This was the chaotic state of affairs when Louis XIV. ascended the throne. The nation, fast driving toward the breakers of revolt and weakened by a constant succession of tempests, was rescued from imminent peril by the opportune ascension of Louis XIV. September of the shoals and quicksands which be16, 1638, a little town in the vicinage of Paris, called St. Germain in Laye, was rendered illustrious by the birth of Louis XIV. Son of Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria, Louis inherited the indomitable to the highest pinnacle of power, prospercourage and justice of his father and the ity and respect among nations. He courtesy and kind-heartedness of his hoped to stem the current of conflict and VOL. V.-1.

set her on all sides. His ardent desire
was to give peace, prosperity and, above
all, unity to his kingdom, and to elevate
France from a state of domestic misery

to change rebellion into fraternity. cious acts attributed to him by some Though we do not favor the concentra- writers in connection with the revocation of power in one individual, yet we tion of the Edict of Nantes. Let us see that in the condition in which France consider this exaggerated question in then was, no more effectual rule could another light than through that prehave been adopted, nor could any scion judiced medium in which biased Protestof the royal house of France have wield- ant writers have taught us to regard it. ed the sceptre more powerfully in the Let us interrogate history, and view that interests of French welfare and glory. much misrepresented act in its true bearA man of striking and handsome mien, ings. with many natural endowments, of noble The Edict of Nantes, which was and commanding appearance, Louis granted by Henry IV., the grandfather XIV. was eminently qualified to occupy of Louis, allowing the Huguenots right of the foremost place in the nation and public worship, was revoked by Louis impress his subjects with reverential awe. XIV., and the act naturally drew upon The word King to the French people of him the execrations of Protestant writers, the seventeenth century implied some- who, by studied and ingenious misrepthing analagous to the supernatural, resentations, have succeeded in producsomething elevated far over ordinary ing a false and erroneous impression humanity, and no one was ever better with reference to this important political qualified to foster this notion than Louis measure. Prejudiced writers picture to XIV. In him they found that which they us six hundred thousand of France's prized so highly-glory and magnifi- noblest and best progeny, expatriated cence; they welcomed the supercilious to gratify the whim of a King, or the monarch who was to say: "l'etat c'est religious scruples of a Catholic. Instead moi," they recognized the man of whom of six hundred thousand exiles, history Mazarin observed "Il y a de l'etoffe en points out but sixty thousand; and inlui pour faire quatre rois et un honnete stead of being dictated by religious mohomme." To natural talents of a high or- tives, we see that the act was exclusively der Louis united rare erudition, which en- political. That the revocation was not abled him to interpret the interests of his instigated by religious zeal, and that the subjects and draw about him that bright Holy See was not instrumental in effecthalo of learning for which his court was ing it, is evident from the very fact that so renowned. By marrying late in life, he on October 22, 1685, the day on which ended the scandal which clouded the early the revocation was declared, Louis, indays of his reign, and won to his side the stead of receiving ecclesiastical counsel, accomplished authoress, the refined lady, held his kingdom in ephemeral schism. and pious wife, Mlle. de Maintenon. That the revocation was a political necesNever had so illustrious a galaxy en- sity is evidenced by the flagrant obstacle compassed the throne of France. Cor- to unity which Protestantism ever provneille, Racine, Moliere, La Fontaine, La ed, instead of being a bulwark of human Bruyere, Boileau, La Rochefoucauld and liberty. None could more clearly perGrimault adorned the world of letters, ceive than Louis the studious efforts while Colbert and Vauban built up the which this disaffected body was making material glories of France. With such to disrupt the integrity of France and men as counselors, how can we suppose sow discord in the national fold. Louis that Louis XIV. perpetrated the atro- fully appreciated the utter futility of