Editing Reformation (section)

=== France ===
{{main|Massacre of Mérindol|Huguenot|Reformed Church of France|French Wars of Religion}}

Catholicism remained the official state religion, and the fortunes of French Protestants gradually declined over the next century, culminating in Louis XIV's [[Edict of Fontainebleau]] (1685), which revoked the Edict of Nantes and made Catholicism the sole legal religion of France, leading some Huguenots to live as [[Nicodemite]]s.<ref>"[https://books.google.com/books?id=AMdQCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA395 Nicodemism]", ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.</ref> In response to the Edict of Fontainebleau, [[Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg]] declared the [[Edict of Potsdam]] (October 1685), giving free passage to Huguenot refugees and tax-free status to them for ten years.

In the late 17th century, 150,000–200,000 Huguenots fled to England, the Netherlands, Prussia, Switzerland, and the English and Dutch overseas colonies.<ref>''1685 and the French Revolution'', Andrew Jainchill, ''The French Revolution in Global Perspective'', ed. Suzanne Desan, Lynn Hunt, and William Max Nelson, (Cornell University Press, 2013), 57.</ref> A significant community in France remained in the [[Cévennes]] region. A separate Protestant community, of the [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] faith, existed in the newly conquered province of [[Alsace]], its status not affected by the Edict of Fontainebleau.