As the parish registers of my birthplace, Brouage in France, have been destroyed by fire, I am unsure whether I was baptized a Roman Catholic or a Protestant. (Protestants were people who belonged to Christian congregations that separated from the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation). As Brouage is a Huguenot town and my name Samuel it would point to my being born a Protestant. Be that as it may, I became a Catholic before I began my adventures in New France and it was the faith of the one true Catholic and apostolic faith that I spoke to the Indians at Tadoussac in 1603. My wife Helene was a Protestant but, of course, converted when we married. I always thought the differences between Catholics and Protestants was not so great as to lead to such outrages as the St. Bartholomew’s massacre in 1572 in which more than 3000 Huguenots were killed in Paris. Fortunately Henry IV, a former Huguenot, after becoming King issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598. This brought religious toleration to my country and an end to nearly 40 years of French religious wars. You know, people are inclined to follow the religion of their sovereign, especially in countries such as France where the monarch rules by divine right. (The right of kings to make laws, war, and govern people was given to them by God.) Religion - View
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