ce against his person, and diffidence of
his sincerity, that even his abjuration would not reconcile them to
his title; and he must either expect to be entirely excluded from the
throne, or be admitted to it on such terms as would leave him little
more than the mere shadow of royalty. In this delicate situation, he
had resolved to temporize; to retain the Hugonots by continuing in the
profession of their religion; to gain the moderate Catholics by giving
them hopes of his conversion; to attach both to his person by conduct
and success; and he hoped, either that the animosity arising from
war against the league would make them drop gradually the question
of religion, or that he might in time, after some victories over his
enemies, and some conferences with divines, make finally, with more
decency and dignity, that abjuration which must have appeared at first
mean, as well as suspicious, to both parties.

When the people are attached to any theological tenets merely from a
general persuasion or prepossession, they are easily induced, by any
motive or authority, to change their faith in these mysterious subjects;
as appears from the example of the English, who, during some reigns,
usually embraced, without scruple, the still varying religion of their
sovereigns. But the French nation, where principles had so long been
displayed as the badges of faction, and where each party had fortified
its belief by an animosity against the other, were not found so pliable
or inconstant; and Henry was at last convinced that the Catholics of
his party would entirely abandon him, if he gave them not immediate
satisfaction in this particular. The Hugonots also, taught by
experience, clearly saw that his desertion of them was become absolutely
necessary for the public settlement; and so general was this persuasion
among them, that, as the duke of Sully pretends, even the divines of
that party purposely allowed themselves to be worsted in the disputes
and conferences, that the king might more readily be convinced of the
weakness of their cause, and might more cordially and sincerely, at
least more decently, embrace the religion which it was so much his
interest to believe. If this self-denial, in so tender a point, should
appear incredible and supernatural in theologians, it will, at least,
be thought very natural, that a prince so little instructed in these
matters as Henry, and desirous to preserve his sincerity, should
insensibly bend his