Editing François Fénelon (section)

==Missionary to the Huguenots, 1686–87==
During this period, Fénelon had become friends with his future rival [[Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet]].  When [[Louis XIV]] revoked the [[Edict of Nantes]] in 1685, the Church began a campaign to send the greatest orators in the country into the regions of France with the highest concentration of [[Huguenot]]s to persuade them of the errors of [[Protestantism]].  Upon Bossuet's suggestion, Fénelon was included in this group,<ref name=ccel/> alongside such oratorical greats as [[Louis Bourdaloue]] and [[Esprit Fléchier]].

He spent the next three years in the [[County of Saintonge|Saintonge]] region of France preaching to Protestants.  He persuaded the king to remove troops from the region and tried to avoid outright displays of religious oppression. But, in the end, he was willing to resort to force to make Protestants listen to his message.  He believed that "to be obliged to do good is always an advantage and that heretics and schismatics, when forced to apply their minds to the consideration of truth, eventually lay aside their erroneous beliefs, whereas they would never have examined these matters had not authority constrained them."{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}