Note 818 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
According to D'Aubigné, the king, on his conversion, said, ‘Je ferai voir à tout le monde que je n'ai esté persuadé par autre théologie que la nécessité de l'estat.’ Smedley's Reformed Religion in France, vol. ii. p. 362. That Henry felt this is certain; and that he expressed it to his friends is probable; but he had a difficult game to play with the Catholic church; and in one of his edicts we find ‘une grande joye de son retour à l'église, dont il attribuoit la cause à la grâce du Tout-Puissant, et aux prières de ses fidèles sujets.’ De Thou, Hist. Univ. vol. xii. pp. 105, 106. Compare, at pp. 468, 469, the message he sent to the pope.