"The crown was tottering upon the king's head," said Count d' Harcourt to the pastors of Guienne, "but you have made it secure." The royal declaration of 1652, confirming and ratifying the edict of Nantes, was a recompense for the services and fidelity of the Huguenots.

They did not enjoy it long; an edict of 1656 annulled, at the same time explaining, the favorable declaration of 1652; in 1660 the last national synod was held at Loudun.

"His Majesty has resolved," said M.de la Magdelaine, deputed from the king to the synod, "that there shall be no more such assemblies but when he considers it expedient." Fifteen years had rolled by since the synod of Charenton in 1645.

"We are only too firmly persuaded of the usefulness of our synods, and how entirely necessary they are for our churches, after having been so long with out them," sorrowfully exclaimed the moderator, Peter Daille.
For two hundred and twelve years the Reformed church of France was deprived of its synods.

God at last restored to it this corner-stone of its interior constitution.
The suppression of the edict-chambers instituted by Henry IV.