The political importance of the Parlement of Paris dates from the reign of Charles VI. Under Louis NT. it began definitely to put itself into opposition to the royal will in matters of legisla tion and administration by attempting to the text of the royal edicts submitted to it for registration (enregistrenient)or by rejecting them altogether. The process of registration, which in the beginning was merely formal and largely in the nature of an act of record, had come in time to be regarded by the Parlenient as essential for the validity of all royal decrees. The king, met the opposition by letters of "jussion" com manding the Parlenient to register, frequently, too, by imprisonment and exile. After 1.563 the common form was by means of a royal bed of justice (q.v.), where the king appeared in solemn state and ordered the Parlement to register the obnoxious decree. The Parlements exercised great influence during the period of the civil tsars when they were the strongholds of catholicism. They submitted, however, to Henry IV. The Parlement of Paris sought to assert its authority during the reign of Louis XIII., but failed before the masterful will of Richelieu. Under Louis XIV. Parlenient, after playing a leading part in the troubles of the Fronde (q.v.), was re stricted entirely to its judicial functions. After that monarch's death, however, the Parlenient declared his will invalid, and vested the regency iu the Duke of Orleans. Thereafter it was en gaged in continuous struggles against the crown in the hope of regaining its former power. It was conspicuous in the Jansenist controversy in connection with the Bull Unigenitn, (see JAN SENISM ) , and was the bitter enemy of the Jesuits, whose expulsion it brought about with the aid of Madame de Pompadour. The conflict between
the Parlement and the crown culminated in the coup d'kat of 1771, when the Chaneelor \laupeou declared all the offices of the Parlement vacant and organized a new body whose authority was greatly curtailed by the establishment of six superior courts in the territory formerly under the jurisdiction of the Parlement. Purchase and fees were abolished, but the principle of irre movability was retained. In spite of the fact. that the change was on the whole for good. the new Parlement—the Parlement Aiapeon, as it was called—was extremely unpopular. and when Louis XVI. succeeded to the throne he restored the old magistrates. The quarrels with the crown nevertheless continued, the Parlement making itself the mouthpiece of the new ideas of popular rights. national sovereignty, and thorough-going reform. Its protestations, how ever, were not sincere, as was evidenced at the summoning of the States-General, in 17S7, when it showed itself no less jealous of its preroga tives than the nobility or the clergy. It lost thereby the popularity which it had enjoyed for some time, and in 1790 the Parlement of Paris, with the provincial parlements, abol ished by the National Assembly. As judicial tribunals the French parlements take a very high position among such institutions in his tory. Though narrow in spirit as far as con cerned their privileges as a caste, they never theless dispensed justice in an admirable man ner. and were largely instrumental in unifying the customary law of France. Consult Voltaire. Histoire du parlrnicia dc Paris (Paris, 17 9): Dufey, Histoire, actes et renzontranees des par lements (vol. ii., Paris, 1826) ehaneclier llaupeou et les parlcn (Paris. IS S3 ) .