When God's will leads to a civil war

What to do in the event of a religious uprising: compromise or take the plunge? Religious Pragmatism in the Early Modern age, Part 1: France, on the Calvinist civil war in the 1560s.

In the previous episode, I explained why religious toleration was unthinkable in the 16th century. Mutual understanding between Catholics and Protestants was a sinful idea. The adversary was the spawn of the devil and had to be exterminated root and branch. Religious division under one monarch was the worst possible scenario.

But religious unity was hard…