Les cours souveraines au XVIe siècle : morale et Contre-Réforme

Sovereign Courts in l6th-Century France : morality and Counter-Reformation The "perfect Catholic magistrate", who represented a model for judges until the Revolution, was a creation of the sixteenth century. In Paris, this ideal was largely the product of combined pressures from the crown and from hostile urban elites upon an often resistant judiciary. It was characterized by an "externalization" of values-a very Baroque solution intended to impress an urban population. The author goes on to show how, in the second half of the century, the elements of the model were steadily disseminated and combined within such curial institutions as the mercuriales of the Parlement and the inquiries into the "religion, life and morals" of new magistrates at the Cour des Monnaies. While initially intended as a system of defence, the magisterial ethic became a means of asserting social and cultural cohesion against traditional urban elites and the gentilshommes. It therefore ranks as one of the determining factors in the formation of the robe nobility.Kaiser Colin. Les cours souveraines au XVIe siècle : morale et Contre-Réforme. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 37ᵉ année, N. 1, 1982. pp. 15-31