he new edict provided for the destruction of Huguenot churches and the closing of their schools. Al though they were forbidden to leave France, it is esti mated that 200,000 Huguenots left for shelter in En gland, the United Provinces, and the German states. Through their exodus, France lost people who had com mercial and industrial skills, although some modern scholars have argued this had only a minor impact on the French economy. Perhaps a more important effect of the Huguenot dispersal was the increased hatred of France that the Huguenot emigres stirred up in their adopted Protestant countries. Whatever his motives, Louis's anti-Protestant policy was not aimed at currying papal favor. Louis was a de fender of Gallicanism, the belief that the monarchy pos sessed certain rights over the Catholic church in France, irrespective of papal powers. In the 1670s, Louis claimed the regale or the right of the French king to appoint the lower clergy and collect the revenues of a diocese when it was vacant. Pope Innocent Xl condemned Louis's ac tions, threatening him with reprisals. Louis responded by calling a special assembly of French clergy and direct ing them to draw up a Declaration of Gallican Liberties. This document claimed that the pope's authority in France was limited to spiritual matters and that even in spiritual matters, the pope was subject to the decisions of a general council. The pope protested this challenge to papal authority and the possibility of a schism loomed large. But neither side wanted to go that far. After In nocent's death, a compromise was arranged, and by 1693 the Gallican articles had been retracted. from Jackson J. Spielvogel. Western Civilization (St. Paul, 1991) pp. 523-528 absolutism found root in some of Aristotle's theories: "Aristotle despotic government (nearly convertible with tyrannical) is that of a single ruler that rules, not for the public good but for his own." Peter the Great?Known as the period...
