PARLEMENT, in O.Fr. the name given to any meeting for discussion or debate (parler, to speak), a sense in which it was still used by Joinville, but from the latter half of the 13th century employed in France in a special sense to designate the sessions of the royal court (curia regis). Finally, when the parlement of Paris had become a permanent court of justice, having the supreme authority in cases brought before it, and especially in appeals against the sentences of the baillis and seneschals, it retained this name, which was also given to the other supreme courts of the same nature which were created after its model in the provinces.
Early Usage.—The early Capetians had a custom, based upon ancient precedents, of summoning periodically to their court their principal vassals and the prelates of their kingdom. These gather ings took place on the occasion of one of the great festivals of the year, in the town in which the king was then in residence. Here they deliberated upon political matters and the vassals and prelates gave the king their advice. But the monarch also gave judgment here in those cases which were brought before him. These were few in number during the early days of the Capetian dynasty; for though the king always maintained the principle that he was judge, and even that his competence in this respect was general and unlimited, this competence was at the same time undefined and it was not compulsory to submit cases to the king. At this period, too, appeals, strictly so called, did not exist. Nevertheless when a suit was brought before the king he judged it with the assistance of his prelates and vassals assembled around him, who formed his council. This was the curia regis. But in law the king was sole judge, the vassals and prelates being only advisers. During the 12th and at the beginning of the 13th centuries the curia regis continued to discharge these functions, except that its importance and actual competence continued to increase, and that we frequently find in it, in addition to the vassals and prelates who formed the council, consiliarii, who are evidently men whom the king had in his entourage, as his ordinary and professional coun cillors. Under the reign of St. Louis (which was also the period at which the name parlement began to be applied to these judicial sessions) the aspect of affairs changed. The judicial competence of the parlement developed and became more clearly defined; the system of appeals came into existence, and appeals against the judgments of the baillis and seneschals were brought before it; cases concerning the royal towns, the bonnes villes, were also decided by it. Again, in the old registers of the parlement at this period, the first 0/int books, we see the names of the same coun cillors recurring from session to session. This suggests that a suffi
cient number of councillors was assured beforehand, and a list drawn up for each session; the vassals and prelates still figuring as a complementary body at the council.
Reforms.—Next came the series of ordinances regulating the tenure of the parlement, those of 1278, 1291, 1296 and 2308, and the institution was regularized. Not only were the persons who were to constitute each parlement named in advance, but those who were not placed on this list, even though vassals or prelates, were excluded from judging cases. The royal baillis had to attend the parlement, in order to answer for their judgments, and at an early date was fixed the order of the different bailliages, in which the cases coming from them were heard. The baillis, when not in terested in the case, formed part of the council, but were after wards excluded from it. Before the middle of the 14th century the personnel of the parlement, both presidents and councillors, became fixed de facto if not de iure. Every year a list was drawn up of those who were to hold the session, and although this list was annual, it contains the same names year after year ; they are as yet, however, only annual commissaries (commissaires). In 1344 they became officials (officiers) fixed but not yet irremovable. At the same time the parlement had become permanent ; the num ber of the sessions had diminished, but their length had increased. In the course of the 14th century it became the rule for the parle ment to sit from Martinmas (Nov. 1s) till the end of May; later the session was prolonged till the middle of August, the rest of the year forming the vacation. The parlement had also become fixed at Paris, and, by a development which goes back to fairly early times, the presidents and councillors, instead of being merely the king's advisers, had acquired certain powers, though these were conferred by the monarch ; they were, in fact, true magistrates. The king held his court in person less and less often, and it pro nounced its decrees in his absence; we even find him pleading his cause before it as plaintiff or defendant. In the 14th century, how ever, we still find the parlement referring delicate affairs to the king; but in the 15th century it had acquired a jurisdiction inde pendent in principle. As to its composition, it continued to pre serve one notable feature which recalled its origin. It had originally been an assembly of lay vassals and prelates ; when its composition became fixed and consisted of councillor-magistrates, a certain number of these offices were necessarily occupied by laymen, and others by ecclesiastics, the conseillers lais and the conseillers clerks.