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michel de l’hôpital & christophe de thou One of the most conspicuous elements in L’Hôpital’s legal thought was the belief that the law needed to be modified according to the changing requirements of the times. A quintessential humanist, he had a clear sense of time and stressed the need to adapt the law to the requirements of the time, in conformity with the “condicio temporum.”67 He declared in 1561 before the extended assembly of notables and parlementaires: “Human laws and policy cannot always remain the same; one must change them sometimes according to what people are.”68 As a ship changed sails and directions to shifting winds, the law should change according to the historical and political winds.69 Pacification edicts were necessary in the time of crisis of civil war. The chancellor was willing to compromise, temporarily, on the principle of the unity of religion. This expedient view of the chancellor was bound to clash with the parlementaires’ belief in the permanency of law. The gap in their outlook represents the fundamental difference between the logic of governing and the logic of judging.70 L’Hôpital criticized an unreasonable conservatism of the court but conservatism was the defining spirit of the Parlement of Paris.71 The Parlement of Paris worked hard to build its double image as the representative of the king and also as the executor of the judgments of God. The judges claimed that they were “la loi vivante,” who ensured the conformity of positive law to divine and natural law.72 De Thou declared in 1565 that the Parlement received its authority from “God, from whom we exercise the judgments.”73 God was “avec eux et eux avec Lui.”74 At the same time, emphasized de Thou, the court did not have anything on its own as everything came from the king, “to whom God wanted, commanded, 67 L’Hospital, Michel de and Petris, Loris 2002 p. 298-99. See Kim, Marie Seong-Hak 2010a p. 819-820. 68 Discourse of 18 June 1561, at the Parlement of Paris, in L’Hospital, Michel de 2013 p. 411. See also Daubresse, Sylvie 2005 p. 260-67. 69 Discourse of 3 January 1562, at the Assembly at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in L’Hospital, Michel de and Petris, Loris 2002 p. 438. 70 Saint Bonnet, François 2001 p. 179. 71 Rousselet-Pimont, Anne 2005 p. 212. 72 See Krynen, Jacques 2008. 73 Daubresse, Sylvie 1995 p. 383. 74 Brown, Elizabeth A.R. 1995 p. 345. 148

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