Paris is well worth a mass.
When his cousin Enrique III, the last of the Valois dynasty, named him his successor, Enrique IV already knew that the path to the throne was paved with thorns.
The religious wars had divided not only France, but all of Europe, and although he had been baptized catholic, he was educated in the Calvinist doctrine, and suffered in his own flesh. He already remembered how, after spending four years reigning over France, he had to renounce his faith and embrace the catholic doctrine again so that Saint Liga of Paris would accept him as king.
The disputes of power against the catholic Felipe II continued years later and, while he read the letter that his secretary had brought him, Enrique IV was astonished by the talent of Francois Viete to interpret the ciphered messages that the Spanish used to communicate within themselves.
He closed his eyes and tried to remember some notion of algebra that Viete had taught him. He remembered that he used the consonants, B, C, D…, to supplement the known quantities, and the vowels, A, E, I…, the unknown.
(c) Translation by Braden Williams.
