instituted at Toulouse, with jurisdiction over the extensive domain once
subject to the illustrious counts of that city; a second, at Grenoble,
for Dauphiny; a third, at Bordeaux, for the province of Guyenne
recovered from the English; a fourth, at Dijon, for the newly acquired
Duchy of Burgundy; a fifth, at Rouen, to take the place of the inferior
"exchequer" which had long had its seat there; and a sixth, at
Aix-en-Provence, for the southeast of France.[34]

[Sidenote: Claim to the right of remonstrance.]

To their judicial functions, the Parliament of Paris, and to a minor
degree the provincial parliaments, had insensibly added other functions
purely political. In order to secure publicity for their edicts, and
equally with the view of establishing the authenticity of documents
purporting to emanate from the crown, the kings of France had early
desired the insertion of all important decrees in the parliamentary
records. The registry was made on each occasion by express order of the
judges, but with no idea on their part that this form was essential to
the validity of a royal ordinance. Presently, however, the novel theory
was advanced that parliament had the right of refusing to record an
obnoxious law, and that, without the formal recognition of parliament,
no edict could be allowed to affect the decisions of the supreme or of
any inferior tribunal.

[Sidenote: Indulgence of the crown.]

[Sidenote: The Chancellor's oath.]

In the exercise or this assumed prerogative, the judges undertook to
send a remonstrance to the king, setting forth the pernicious
consequences that might be expected to flow from the proposed measure if
put into execution. However unfounded in history, the claim of the
Parliament of Paris appears to have been viewed with indulgence by
monarchs most of whom were not indisposed to defer to the legal
knowledge of the counsellors, nor unwilling to enhance the consideration
of the venerable and ancient body to which the latter belonged. In all
cases, however, the final responsibility devolved upon the sovereign.
Whenever the arguments and advice of parliament failed to convince him,
the king proceeded in person to the audience-chamber of the refractory
court, and there, holding a _lit-de-justice_, insisted upon the
immediate registration, or else sent his express command by one of his
most trusty servants. The judges, in either case, were forced to
succumb--often, it must be admitted, with a ve