[Illustration:  Fig. 311.—­Inferior Court in the Great Bailiwick.  Adoption of Orphan Children.—­Fac-simile of a Woodcut in J. Damhoudere’s “Refuge et Garand des Pupilles, Orphelins:”  Antwerp, J. Bellere, 1557.]

Towards the end of the sixteenth century the highest French tribunal was represented by nine superior courts—­namely, the Parliament of Bordeaux, created on the 9th of June, 1642; the Parliament of Brittany, which replaced the ancient Grands-Jours, in March, 1553, and sat alternately at Nantes and at Rennes; the Parliament of the Dauphine, established at Grenoble in 1451 to replace the Delphinal Council; the Parliament of Burgundy, established at Dijon in 1477, which took the place of the Grands-Jours at Beaune; the movable Parliament of Dombes, created in 1528, and consisting at the same time of a court of excise and a chamber of accounts; the Parliament of Normandy, established by Louis XII. in April, 1504, intended to replace the Exchequer of Rouen, and the ancient ducal council of the province; the Parliament of Provence, founded at Aix in July, 1501; the Parliament of Toulouse, created in 1301; and the Parliament of Paris, which took precedence of all the others, both on account of its origin, its antiquity, the extent of its jurisdiction, the number of its prerogatives, and the importance of its decrees.  In 1551, Henry II. created, besides these, an inferior court in each bailiwick, the duties of which were to hear, on appeal, all matters in which sums of less than two hundred livres were involved (Fig. 311).  There existed, besides, a branch of the Grands-Jours, occasionally sitting at Poitiers, Bayeux, and at some other central towns, in order to suppress the excesses which at times arose from religious dissensions and political controversy.

The Parliament of Paris—­or Great French Parliament, as it was called by Philip V. and Charles V., in edicts of the 17th of November, 1318, and of the 8th of October, 1371—­was divided into four principal chambers:  the Grand Chamber, the Chamber of Inquiry, the Criminal Chamber, and the Chamber of Appeal.  It was composed of ordinary councillors, both clerical and lay; of honorary councillors, some of whom were ecclesiastics, and others members of the nobility; of masters of inquiry; and of a considerable number of officers of all ranks (Figs. 312 to 314).  It had at times as many as twenty-four presidents, one hundred and eighty-two councillors, four knights of honour, four masters of records; a public prosecutor’s office was also attached, consisting of the king’s counsel, an attorney-general and deputies, thus forming an assembly of from fifteen to twenty persons, called a college.  Amongst the inferior officers we may mention twenty-six ushers, four receivers-general of trust money, three commissioners for the receipt of goods which had been seized under distress, one treasurer and paymaster, three controllers, one physician,