the lawyers who
had obtained a seat in their body, as is the case at present in the
English House of Lords when it sits as a judicial body. The necessity
of providing some permanent repository for the royal edicts, induced
the kings of France to enroll them in the journals of the courts of
parliament, being the highest judicial tribunal; and the members of
these courts gradually availed themselves of this custom to dispute
the legality of any edict which had not been thus registered. As the
influence of the States General declined, the power of the parliament
increased. The encroachments of the papacy first engaged its
attention, and then the management of the finances by the ministers of
Francis I. called forth remonstrances. During the war of the Fronde,
the parliament absolutely refused to register the royal decrees. But
Louis XIV. was sufficiently powerful to suppress the spirit of
independence, and accordingly entered the court, during the first
years of his reign, with a whip in his hand, and compelled it to
register his edicts. Nor did any murmur afterwards escape the body,
until, at the close of his reign the members opposed the bull
_Unigenitus_--that which condemned the Jansenists--as an infringement
of the liberties of the Gallican Church. And no sooner had the great
monarch died, than, contrary to his will, they vested the regency in
the hands of the Duke of Orleans. Then freedom of expostulation
respecting the ruinous schemes of Law induced him to banish them, and
they only obtained their recall by degrading concessions. Their next
opposition was during the administration of Fleury. The minister of
finance made an attempt to inquire into the wealth of the clergy,
which raised the jealousy of the order; and the clergy, in order to
divert the attention of the court, revived the opposition of the
parliament to the bull _Unigenitus_. It was resolved by the clergy to
demand confessional notes from dying persons, and that these notes
should be signed by priests adhering to the bull, before extreme
unction should be given. The Archbishop of Paris, at the head of the
French clergy, was opposed by the parliament, and this high judicial
court imprisoned such of the clergy as refused to administer the
sacraments. The king, under the guidance of Fleury, forbade the
parliament to take cognizance of ecclesiastical proceedings, and to
suspend its prosecutions. Instead of acquiescing, the parliament
presented new remonstr