ABSTRACT
The conversions that made the Edict of Nantes possible did not in fact create a stable regime of toleration. The conversions themselves, we have seen, only created a Prisoners’ Dilemma, the solution to which was provided by the Edict itself. In these new circumstances, toleration became possible. Both sides were willing to accept toleration as an option that was better than open warfare. Yet nothing about this change required them to subordinate the goal of salvation for all to the requirements of toleration. They now merely thought that this goal could not be achieved by violent means-at least for the moment. The toleration that they accepted, then, was the barest modus vivendi.
