ABSTRACT
One new area in which the Parlement and, Francis I, the king tended to clash requires separate consideration: the Reformation. The Parlemen’s policy was one of consistent hostility to doctrinal innovation, though it showed itself well aware of the need for moral reform. In the Parlemen’s conduct, especially during the king’s captivity, there may well have been an element of injudicious antagonism, a rash desire to capitalize upon the king’s absence. In fact the Parlement as a body had never wavered in its opposition to the Huguenot cause, which since the 1530s had become identified with tumult and armed revolt. During the minority of Charles IX, the influence of the chancellor, Michel de LHopital, became predominant and considerably affected the political attitudes of the Parlement. The Parisian magistrates were further antagonized by the news that certain provincial Parlements had already published the edict.
