Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/471

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
EDICT OF NANTES.
463

ed, consisting of two Presidents, one Catholic and the other of the pretended Reformed religion, and of twelve Councillors, of whom six shall be Catholic and the other six of the said religion, which Catholic President and Councillors shall by us be taken from and chosen out of the bodies of our said Courts. And as for those of said religion, there shall be a new President and six Councillors created for the Parliament of Bourdeaux, and one President and three Councillors for that of Grénoble, which, with the three Councillors of said religion now in said Parliament, shall be employed in the said Chamber of Dauphiny. The newly created Officers shall be entitled to the same emoluments, honors, rewards and dignities as the others of the said Courts. And the said sitting of said Chamber of Bourdeaux shall be held at Bourdeaux or at Nerac, and that of Dauphiny at Grénoble.

32d.—The said Chamber of Dauphiny shall have cognizance of the causes of those of the pretended Reformed religion within the jurisdiction of our Parliament of Provence, without requiring letters of appeal as in the Chancery Court of Dauphiny, in like manner those of said religion in Normandy and Bretagne shall not be required to take out letters of appeal or other preparation as in our Chancery Court of Paris.

33d.— Our subjects of the religion, of the Parliament of Burgundy, shall have the choice of pleading before the Chamber ordered in the Parliament of Paris or in that of Dauphiny. And they shall not be obliged to take out letters of appeal or other preparation as in the said Chancery Courts of Paris or Dauphiny, according to the choice they shall make.

34th.—All the said Chambers, composed as aforesaid, shall take cognizance and pronounce sentence definitively, without appeal, making decisions, to the exclusion of all others, upon suits and causes commenced and intended to be commenced, in which those of said pretended Reformed religion shall be principal or security, vs plaintiff or defendant, in matters civil or criminal, whether the said complaint be made in writing or verbally, if it seems good to the said parties, and one of them shall demand it, before the commencement of the trial: excepting, always, all matters connected with Church Benefices, the possession of tithes not impropriated, clerical patronage and causes where the question turns upon the rights, duties or domains of the church, which shall all be treated and judged in the Courts of Parliament, without the said Chambers of