Religion and Royal Justice in Early Modern France: The Paris Chambre de l'Edit, 1598–1665 (review)

The 1598 Edict of Nantes declared an end to the French Wars of Religion and was meant to bring peace to France by enforcing religious toleration. To do this it created a method for managing relations between Huguenots and Catholics, which both protected and limited the rights of the Huguenot minority, the members of the "so-called reformed religion" (religion prétendue reformée). Diane Margolf's Religion and Royal Justice focuses on one of the major protections for Huguenots in the edict: the creation of special law courts, the Chambre de l'Edit and the chambres mi-parties, to resolve legal disputes involving Huguenot litigants.

Margolf looks specifically at the Chambre de l'Edit, which was created within the Parlement of Paris to deal with these cases in the Paris area, the Ile-de-France, Picardy, Champagne, Touraine, Poitou, Anjou, and Saintonge. She refers to the provincial chambres mi-parties, but uses them primarily for comparison and contrast. Although both types of court featured magistrates from both religions, the chambres mi-parties had equal numbers of Huguenot and Catholic magistrates and often had split decisions, which were appealed to the Chambre de l'Edit. The Chambre de l'Edit, however, never had more than one Huguenot sitting at a time.

Margolf begins by discussing the chamber's historical role in seventeenth-century France, describing the court's legal jurisdiction, and providing contemporary views of its function and importance. Succeeding chapters contain Margolf's analysis of the cases, litigants, decisions, and punishments in three broad areas: those dealing with the Wars of Religion; with the family, marriage, and inheritance; and with violence, fraud, and judicial misconduct. Her analysis and conclusions are the result of her examination of the archival records of every criminal case heard in the chamber from 1600–10 (over a thousand) and of samples of the records at five-year intervals for the period from 1610–65. This provides a wealth of material and a solid archival base for her analysis of the cases. Although individual litigants, who came from all classes and groups, certainly benefited from this royal justice, Margolf emphasizes that the chief beneficiary was ultimately the crown, which used the chamber to maintain peace in the kingdom.

The Edict ordered amnesty for actions committed during the Wars of Religion (the requirement of oubliance) and forbade their litigation. Yet many litigants brought such cases to the chamber, claiming their losses during the wars were not the result of the wars themselves, but of earlier personal animosity. Margolf's evidence shows that most cases trying to ignore oubliance were dismissed, although some litigants did make their argument successfully and overcame the edict's protection of amnesty.

Far more cases involved family issues, including inheritances and marriages. Royal law required parental consent and a public ceremony for a marriage to be valid, but Huguenot and Catholic requirements differed from this and from each other. The chamber's magistrates were required to enforce the royal laws, which applied to all French men and women. Margolf does a fine job of bringing out the complexity of some of these cases where sufficient evidence exists.

A third category involved violence and the public peace. Chapter 5 includes cases involving both verbal (from insult to seditious speech) and physical violence, as well as judicial misconduct, property crimes, and "counterfeiting" (usually forged documents). She artfully blends her discussion of the social importance of family honor with the chamber's choices of public or private punishment when it was enforcing royal justice and peace. The chamber's efforts to stop judicial misconduct at the local level were equally important, and contributed both to the peacekeeping mission and the extension of royal justice which the edict encouraged.

Although there is implied change over time in the...