Editing Parlement (section)

==Judicial proceedings==
In civil trials, judges had to be paid ''épices'' (literally "spices" – fees) by the parties, to pay for legal advice taken by the judges, and the costs of their staff. Judges were not allowed to ask for, or receive, épices from the poor.

Regarding criminal justice, the proceedings were markedly archaic. Judges could order suspects to be [[torture]]d in order to extract confessions or induce them to reveal the names of their [[accomplice]]s: there were the ''question ordinaire'' ("ordinary questioning"), the ordinary form of torture, and the ''question extraordinaire'' ("extraordinary questioning"), with increased brutality. There was little [[presumption of innocence]] if the suspect was a mere poor [[commoner]]. The death sentence could be pronounced for a variety of crimes including mere [[theft]]; depending on the crime and the social class of the victim, death could be by [[decapitation]] with a [[sword]] (for nobles), [[hanging]] (for most of the secondary crimes by commoners), the [[breaking wheel]] (for some heinous crimes by commoners). Some crimes, such as [[regicide]], exacted even more horrific punishment, as [[Hanged, drawn and quartered|drawing and quartering]]. With the spread of enlightenment ideas throughout France, most forms of judicial torture had fallen out of favor, and while they remained on the books, were rarely applied after 1750.

Ultimately, judicial torture and cruel methods of executions were abolished in 1788 by King [[Louis XVI]].<ref>[http://history.rutgers.edu/graduate/ab93silv.htm Abstract of dissertation "'Pour savoir la verité de sa bouche': The Practice and Abolition of Judicial Torture in the Parliament of Toulouse, 1600–1788"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060515195623/http://history.rutgers.edu/graduate/ab93silv.htm |date=2006-05-15 }} by Lisa Silverman.</ref>