jean-louis halpérin Concerning the composition of the court, the evolution lead to the establishment of a group of king’s counsellors that was constituted with clerical and lay justices. These judges were less and less members of the knights’ aristocracy and more and more lawyers originated from the bourgeoisie or, in some cases, from rural families (with peasants). First, they obtained letters of nobility from the king, then they were considered as members of the “robe nobility” (noblesse de robe, at the same time the dress of the members of the Parlement was codified, with red robes evoking the purple associated to the Romanimperiumor to the Roman senate). Despite their legal knowledge, they did not necessarily get a degree in law (considering the fact that Roman law was not taught in the Paris University) and they depended on the royal favour. Concerning the role of the court, one has to not overestimate the influence of Roman law over these judges. In criminal matters, the procedure remained a mixture of accusatorial process and of inquisitorial process (with the rare use of torture), whereas the use of trial by combat finished to disappear (in the Olimthere are only twenty decisions about this form of duel).7 There was a clear consciousness of the members of the Parlement about the authority of its rulings (arrest) that could be quoted by advocates as precedents and followed by the subordinate courts (then by the Parliaments created outside Paris, beginning in Toulouse in 1444, then in Grenoble, Bordeaux and Aix, letting a great area in the centre of kingdom for the appeals to the Paris Parliament).The keeping of archives, first with the abstracts contained in theOlimthen with the decisions and the procedures written down in registers, was the means to give a “memory” to the court and to develop this case law. However, as other courts in Europe,8 and as recommended by the canonist doctrine, it was decided not to give the reasons (with the expressions considerao quod or attendo quodthat were used before and correspond to the modern style of French courts until today) of rulings, in order not to diminish the authority of the courts. In this context, it is not so easy to determine the sources of theParlement’s rulings and the judicial policy 7 Hilaire, Jean 2011 p. 40. 8 Godding, Philippe 1978, pp. 37-68 121
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