Henri IV and Champlain lived in an age when western civilization was deeply divided by a common ideal of One True Faith. Many people in the western world shared this obsession, but they did so in different ways. By comparison with other Christians, Henri’s and Champlain’s way of faith was something special and distinct—even unique to a small circle of leaders in France. It was very much a product of their personal experience and their country’s history. Most of all it was a reaction against the cruelty, bloodshed, and oppression of the wars of religion. That experience made Henri IV and Champlain the men they were, and New France the place that it became.