"Acceptance of Henri IV's sincerity demanded that the subject willingly abdicate any claim to participate in politics not framed exclusively by reference to the royal will and conscience. That act, more than anything else, crystallized the new relationship that later developed between the Bourbons and the Catholic élites in France during the seventeenth century. The enormous appeal of this new type of royal absolutism after the wars of religion largely rested on this call for a suspension of ethical inquiry by subjects into the king's motives and the arcana imperii of royal office. Such inquiry had come to be seen as detrimental to public order and social harmony, and therefore transgressed the bounds of legitimate public discussion. In the future, political power lay only with those who voluntarily resigned the responsible exercise of political authority to an absolute king sanctioned by a Catholic God. This simple formula and solution to the past troubles animated the Catholic élite's renewed commitment to the crown held by the converted Henri IV. In exchange for order, they embraced the new discipline that reserved the perquisites of power and status to those who participated in the cult of monarchy and the self-abnegating doctrine of service du roi. For Catholics all across France, the conversion of Henri IV at the abbey church of St-Denis on 25 July 1593 was plus que l'histoire événementielle. In it they saw at the time and for years afterwards a transcendent act of public and private redemption, an act that preserved the crown's sacred character and cleansed the king's person of the taint of heresy and moral degradation. Most importantly, the conversion of Henri IV reminded all loyal Frenchmen that they were truly among God's chosen people once they abandoned sedition and experienced a reconversion to la religion royale."