The Parisians are roaring with laughter when Rabelais’ Gargantua takes stance on the towers of Notre Dame in order to urinate on the heads of the onlookers! At the same time ‘the new faith’, expressed by John Calvin, challenges the authority of the Virgin. The accusation of heresy is on the lips of many a Catholic in Paris. Soon the tocsin of the cathedral is ringing. In the aftermath of the marriage between Margot of Valois and Henry, the protestant prince of Navarra, thousands of Protestants are murdered. Twenty two years later Henry of Navarra returns to the cathedral as the King of France. He ends the religious wars, giving equal rights to Protestants and Catholics. But the great King dies by an assassin’s dagger.
