marie seong-hak kim and ordered that all the souls of his kingdom render honor and obedience, without any exception.” God “commanded that the king be honored either directly in his own person, or indirectly in the persons of his magistrates and officials to whom he communicated and warranted power which God had warranted to him.”75 As the chief judge of the court, unswervingly committed to the unity of religion and the respect of tradition, tried hard to defend the position of the Parlement: it had the duty to implore the crown to reconsider its policy of allowing the existence of two religions within the state. L’Hôpital, as the head of the government, could not entertain constitutional intricacies that delayed the execution of royal religious policy; the ideal of confessional unity had to be set aside, temporarily, when the kingdom was on the verge of dissolution. In January 1566 an assembly of notables was held in Moulins. L’Hôpital declared in his opening speech: “Justice belongs to the king and not to private individuals . . . , in this monarchy the interpretation [of law] belongs to the king, who makes the laws, and not to anyone else.”76 The Ordinance of Moulins, issued in February at the conclusion of the assembly, demonstrated the king’s determination to stop what he regarded as the Parlement’s abuse of remonstrance. Its Article 1 forbade magistrates from addressing remonstrances to the king which would amount to “interpretation, declaration, or moderation” of the king’s law.77 The prohibition of repeated remonstrance can be seen as the first official negation of the law court’s equity power.78 Article 208 of the ordinance of Blois, issued in May 1579, ordered all the judges in the kingdom to “observe 75 “commandé que l’honneur luy fust faict ou directement en sa propre personne, ou indirectement en la personne de ses magistratz et officiers ausquelz il a communicqué et baillé puissance que Dieu luy a baillée, voullant que majus imperium post eum in regno haberent [desiring that he would have the highest authority after him in the kingdom].” Quoted from Daubresse, Sylvie 1995 p. 383. 76 Discourse of 24 January 1566, Remonstrance deMoulins, in L’Hospital,Michel de 2013 p. 85. In the same theme, L'Hôpital had chided the parlementaires of Rouen in August 1563 for “interpreting” royal ordinances. Discourse of 17 August 1563, at the Parlement of Rouen, in L’Hospital, Michel de 2013 p. 51. 77 The Ordinance of Moulins was registered at the Parlement of Paris on 1 March 1566. See Maugis, Édouard 1913 vol. 1 p. 615. 78 Krynen, Jacques 2008 p. 182. 149
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