Hi Guys Careful of this one folks, Dori wrote in her posting about Souplis: "Compulsory military service was required of every man. To served in the army was to defend the state faith. To oppose the state faith was equal to being a heretic and the penalty for this was death." (Bertine 1988, v II 325,328) Well, that's a bold statement to be sure. And it's not true because Huguenots did not have to serve in the army of the state (presumably France) because many lived in what were quasi-independent and self governing mini states, granted under the Edict of Nantes. Despite the secret attachments to the Edict, Huguenot areas had a good deal of autonomy, Nimes and La Rochelle almost becoming states within France, Nimes most certainly having their equivalent of a Parliament. Bertine should prove this wide sweeping statement, in all the research on France that I've done, I've never come across any instance of a Frenchman being put to death for heresy for not serving in the army. And which other states had compulsory military service - men may have been taken into the army as part of their servitude to local nobility, pressed or conscripted in times of war, militia units may have been raised and mobilised but the majority of European state armies were volunteer, even the New Model Army in England was essentially a volunteer Army and that was probably one of the most efficient around. Regards Tony Fuller