In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries all the members of Parliament formed part of the council of State, which was divided into the Smaller Council and the Greater Council.  The Greater Council only assembled in cases of urgency and for extraordinary and very important purposes, the Smaller Council assembled every month, and its decisions were registered.  From this arose the custom of making a similar registration in Parliament, confirming the decisions after they had been formally arrived at.  The most ancient edict placed on the register of the Parliament of Paris dates from the year 1334, and is of a very important character.  It concerns a question of royal authority, and decides that in spiritual matters the right of supremacy does not belong more to the Pope than to the King.  Consequently Philippe de Valois ordered “his friends and vassals who shall attend the next Parliament and the keepers of the accounts, that for the perpetual record of so memorable a decision, it shall be registered in the Chambers of Parliament and kept for reference in the Treasury of the Charters.”  From that time “cases of complaint and other matters relating to benefices have no longer been discussed before the ecclesiastical judges, but before Parliament or some other secular court.”

During the captivity of King John in England, royal authority having considerably declined, the powers of Parliament and other bodies of the magistracy so increased, that under Charles VI. the Parliament of Paris was bold enough to assert that a royal edict should not become law until it had been registered in Parliament.  This bold and certainly novel proceeding the kings nevertheless did not altogether oppose, as they foresaw that the time would come when it might afford them the means of repudiating a treaty extorted from them under difficult circumstances (Fig. 306).

The close connection which existed between the various Parliaments and their political functions—­for they had occasion incessantly to interfere between the acts of the government and the respective pretensions of the provinces or of the three orders—­naturally increased the importance of this supreme magistracy.  More than once the kings had cause to repent having rendered it so powerful, and this was the case especially with the Parliament of Paris.  In this difficulty it is interesting to note how the kings acted.  They imperceptibly curtailed the various powers of the other courts of justice, they circumscribed the power of the Parliament of Paris, and proportionately enlarged the jurisdiction of the great bailiwicks, as also that of the Chatelet.  The provost of Paris was an auxiliary as well as a support to the royal power, which nevertheless held him in its grasp.  The Chatelet was also a centre of action and of strength, which counteracted in certain cases parliamentary opposition.  Thence arose the most implacable rivalries and dissensions between these various parties.