ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the inadequacies of state-directed conflict resolution in practice focusing on the contests over public executions in Paris towards the end of the Wars of Religion. During public executions, the magistrates of the Parlement worked to ensure that the condemned died penitent and recognized the truth of their crimes and that they were expelled from society in this life and prepared for their salvation in the next. The chapter focuses on the execution ritual itself, the impact of the troubles of the League on the practice of criminal justice in the Parlement, and the responses of the scaffold crowd, in order to emphasize the difficulties the Parlement faced in performing public executions. The magistrates of the Parlement carefully structured and recorded the procedure of the interrogation immediately before execution to ensure that executions followed 'the customary manner'. The Parlement of Paris was the highest court in the French kingdom and heard most cases on appeal.
