ADMINISTRATION OF FLEUKY.

241

eight years of the reign of Louis XV. His prime minister Ch. 20 was Dubois, afterwards Archbishop of Cambray, who was A. D. rewarded with a cardinal's hat for the service he rendered 1723 to the Jesuits in their quarrel with the Jansenists. He was to a man of most unprincipled character, a fit minister to a 1726. prince who pretended to be too intellectual to worship God, Car

and who copied Henry IV. only in his licentiousness.

dinal

nal

The first minister of Louis XV., after he had himself as- Dubois. sumed the reins of government, which took place in 1723, was the Duke of Bourbon, lineal heir of the house of Condé, and first prince of the blood. His short administration was signalized by no important event. Cardinal Fleury succeeded Cardito the Duke. He had been preceptor of the King, and was Fleury. superior to Court intrigue; a man of great timidity, but also a man of great probity, gentleness, and benignity. Fortunately he was intrusted with power at a period of domestic tranquillity, and his administration was, like that of Walpole, pacific. He however made no improvements either in laws or finance. He ruled despotically, but with good intentions, from 1726 to 1743.

The main subject of interest connected with his peaceful administration, was the quarrel between the Jesuits and the Jansenists. Fleury took the side of the former, although he was never an active partisan.

The Jansenist controversy was far from being terminated by the demolition of the Abbey of Port Royal, and the dispersion of those who sought its retreat. That controversy was the great event in the history of Catholic Europe during the eighteenth century, involving, as it did, principles of high political as well as theological interest. It had originated in long disputed questions pertaining to grace and free-will,questions which were agitated with great acrimony in the The seventeenth century, as they had previously been agitated Jansen centuries before by Augustine and Pelagius; it was prolonged because the independence of the National Church, and freedom of conscience from spiritual tyranny, were seen to be inti

ists.

242

THE JUDICIAL POWERS

A. D.

Ch. 20 mately connected with the principles in dispute. Jansenism was in fact a mild form of Puritanism, a timid protest against 1726 ecclesiastical despotism, and as such, it always found many in to France prepared to sympathize with it. Pascal is immor1743. talized by the "Provincial Letters" which, in connexion with

this great struggle, he directed against the Jesuits. These letters written in the purest French, with matchless power and beauty, inimitable models of irony, inflicted the severest blow that body of ambitious and artful casuists ever received. The quarrel now under notice proved that even the Parliaof Paris. ment of Paris had, to some extent, caught its spirit.

The Parliament

It so happened that a certain Bishop published a charge to his clergy which was strongly imbued with the independent doctrines of the Jansenists. He was tried and condemned by a provincial council, and banished by the Government. The Parliament of Paris, as the guardian of the law, took up the quarrel, and Cardinal Fleury was obliged to resort to a Bed of Justice in order to secure the registry of the decree. A Bed of Justice was the personal appearance of the Sovereign in the Supreme Judicial Tribunal of the nation; and his command to the members of it to obey his injunctions was the last resort of absolute power. The Parliament, of course, obeyed; but protested the next day, and drew up resolutions which declared the temporal power to be independent of the spiritual. It then proceeded to Meudon, one of the royal palaces, to lay its remonstrance before the King; but Louis XV., indignant and astonished, refused to see the members. The original controversy was now forgotten, and the cause of the Parliament, which was the cause of liberty, became the cause of the nation. The resistance was unsuccessful, yet it sowed the Its seeds of popular discontent, and contributed, among other judicial charac- causes, to that great insurrection which finally overturned

It may be asked how the Parliament of Paris became a judicial tribunal, rather than a legislative assembly, as in England? The reply is easily furnished. When the Justi

FARLIAMENT OF PARIS.

243

1726

to

fune

nian code was introduced into French jurisprudence, in the lat- Ch.20 ter part of the Middle Ages, the old feudal and clerical judges, A. D. the barons and bishops, were incapable of expounding it, and a new class of men arose, the lawyers, whose exclusive business it was to study the laws. Being best acquainted 1743. with them, they entered upon the functions of judges, and the secular and clerical lords yielded to their opinions. The Its great barons, however, still continued to sit in the judicial tions. tribunals, although ignorant of the new jurisprudence; and their decisions were directed by the opinions of 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 enrol 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.

of its

power

As the influence of the States-General declined, the power Growth of the Parliament increased. The encroachments of the papacy first engaged its attention, and 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.

During the administration of Fleury, a fresh cause of opposition sprang up. 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

Quarrel

with the King.

244

REIGN OF MISTRESSES.

Ch. 20 the attention of the court, revived the oppositi

A. D.

ance.

liament to the bull Unigenitus. It was resolve 1743. to demand confessional notes from dying pe these notes should be signed by priests adhe before extreme unction should be given. O Archbishop of Paris was opposed by the Parl high judicial court imprisoned such of the to administer the sacraments. The King, un Spirited of Fleury, forbade the Parliament to take cogr resist astical proceedings, and required it to suspen Instead of acquiescing, the Parliament prese strances, refused to attend to any other funct that they could not obey this injunction their consciences. They cited the Bishop their tribunal, and ordered all his writings, jurisdiction of the court, to be publicly b tioner. By aid of the military they enf tration of the sacraments, and became s controversy as to neglect other official duti

Ma

dour.

The indignant King banished the men ception of four, whom he imprisoned; a impede the administration of justice, establ nal for the prosecution of civil suits. sympathizing with the Parliament, refu the new court. This resolute conduct, pening at the time, induced the King t conciliate the people, and the Parliamen was a popular triumph, and the Archbi banished. Shortly after, Cardinal Fler policy was adopted.

V

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