The Parliament held a very different line of policy from that adopted by the Chatelet, which only took a political part in the religious troubles of Protestantism and the League with a view to serve and defend the cause of the people.  In spite of its fits of personal animosity, and its rebellious freaks, Parliament remained almost invariably attached to the side of the King and the court.  It always leaned to the absolute maintenance of things as they were, instead of following progress and changes which time necessitated.  It was for severe measures, for intimidation more than for gentleness and toleration, and it yielded sooner or later to the injunctions and admonitions of the King, although, at the same time, it often disapproved the acts which it was asked to sanction.

[Illustration:  Fig. 316.—­Seal of King Chilperic, found in his Tomb at Tournay in 1654.]

Secret Tribunals.

The Old Man of the Mountain and his Followers in Syria.—­The Castle of Alamond, Paradise of Assassins.—­Charlemagne the Founder of Secret Tribunals amongst the Saxons.—­The Holy Vehme.—­Organization of the Tribunal of the Terre Rouge, and Modes adopted in its Procedures.—­Condemnations and Execution of Sentences.—­The Truth respecting the Free Judges of Westphalia.—­Duration and Fall of the Vehmic Tribunal.—­Council of Ten in Venice; its Code and Secret Decisions.—­End of the Council of Ten.

During the Middle Ages, human life was generally held in small respect; various judicial institutions—­if not altogether secret, at least more or less enveloped in mystery—­were remarkable for being founded on the monstrous right of issuing the most severe sentences with closed doors, and of executing these sentences with inflexible rigour on individuals who had not been allowed the slightest chance of defending themselves.

While passing judgment in secret, they often openly dealt blows as unexpected and terrible as they were fatal.  Therefore, the most innocent and the most daring trembled at the very name of the Free Judges of the Terre-Rouge, an institution which adopted Westphalia as the special, or rather as the central, region of its authority; the Council of Ten exercised their power in Venice and the states of the republic; and the Assassins of Syria, in the time of St. Louis, made more than one invasion into Christian Europe.  We must nevertheless acknowledge that, terrible as these mysterious institutions were, the general credulity, the gross ignorance of the masses, and the love of the marvellous, helped not a little to render them even more outrageous and alarming than they really were.