The Parlement of Paris was the largest secular court in Christendom. Although its criminal archives have been preserved virtually intact, historians of the period of the great witch trials, as well as scholars of the Ancien R�gime in general, have been discouraged by the notorious difficulties of research into them, and have effectively avoided these records. Alfred Soman was the first historian to have undertaken the task. In the fifteen articles republished here, which include both detailed investigations of particular ...
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The Parlement of Paris was the largest secular court in Christendom. Although its criminal archives have been preserved virtually intact, historians of the period of the great witch trials, as well as scholars of the Ancien R�gime in general, have been discouraged by the notorious difficulties of research into them, and have effectively avoided these records. Alfred Soman was the first historian to have undertaken the task. In the fifteen articles republished here, which include both detailed investigations of particular cases and broad-ranging overviews, he contends that criminal justice in the 16th- and 17th-century France was far more humane and less severe than traditional assumptions would suggest. As early as 1588, the High Court began to take steps to restrain indiscriminate witch hunting, particularly in the eastern provinces where prosecutions were instigated not in conformity with, but in defiance of, the highest judicial authority in the land. Le Parlement de Paris, la plus grande cour de justice de l'Occident, nous a l�gu� ses archives criminelles quasiment intactes. Pourtant les historiens des proc�s de sorcellerie, ainsi que les sp�cialistes des aspects institutionnels et sociaux de l'Ancien R�gime, d�courag�s par les difficult�s notoires de la recherche, ont �vit� l'exploitation de ces documents. Alfred Soman est le premier chercheur � en avoir relev� de d�fi. Dans cette s�rie de quinze articles, qui comprennent des enquêtes d�taill�s, ainsi que des essais de synth�se, il soutient que l'ancienne justice a �t� beaucoup plus cl�mente et moins 'injuste' que de vieilles id�es reçues ne le pr�tendent. D�s 1588, la Haute Cour commença � r�primer les nombreuses poursuites pour faits de sorcellerie, plus particuli�rement dans l'Est du royaume, où certains si�ges subalternes entamaient des actions criminelles intempestatives, prenant le contre-pied de la politique mise en place par le Pouvoir judiciaire central.
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