6. That the parliament of Paris was esteemed the highest, because it was composed of princes of royal blood, dukes and peers, besides ordinary judges. Here the king frequently came in person, and had his royal edicts recorded and promulgated.
7. That the kingdom was also divided into twenty-five generalities, every one of which had an intendant, on whom the king depended for the administration of justice, in civil and criminal causes; for ruling and governing the subordinate officers, and ordering and conducting his finances and revenues.
8. That the king nominated the bishops and their livings, and then the pope sent his bulls of consecration.
9. That the crown seized all the temporalities of archbishopricks, and bishopricks, which was called the _regal_, and the king frequently gave pensions to laymen out of the bishopricks.
2. From having their books seized, with the other things they used in divine service.
3. They might be tried in criminal causes, if they chose it, before the grand chamber, which is a court where the nobility were tried.
4. They had the liberty of being degraded, or placed lower, before they could be executed for any atrocious crime.
5. They were exempt from having soldiers quartered on them.
6. Their persons could not be taken with executions in civil actions.
7. They were exempted from being brought before lay courts for personal matters:
But they could not bring a layman before an ecclesiastical court.
All spiritual actions were recognizable in the ecclesiastical courts, providing they were not blended with temporal matters; and when that was the case, they were obliged to try their causes before the civil courts.
There have been four orders of knighthood in France:
_Viz._ 1. Knights of the Holy Ghost,} { 1578. 2. Knights of St. Michael, } Instituted in { 1469. 3. Knights of St. Louis, and } { 1693. 4. Knights of St. Lazarus, }
The annual revenues were collected by a land-tax--by the customs--by a tax on salt--by a poll-tax--by a tenth of estates and employments--by a sale of all offices of justice--and by a tenth, or free gift of the clergy. But this revenue was subject to an enlargment, by raising the value of the coin, and by the compounding of the state bills and debentures.