Idee Generale De La Justice Criminelle

Author : Alfred Soman
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1040247679
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

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Download or read book Sorcellerie et justice criminelle written by Alfred Soman and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-10-28 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Parlement of Paris was the largest secular court in Christendom. Although its criminal archives have been preserved virtually intact, historians of the period of the great witch trials, as well as scholars of the Ancien Régime in general, have been discouraged by the notorious difficulties of research into them, and have effectively avoided these records. Alfred Soman was the first historian to have undertaken the task. In the fifteen articles republished here, which include both detailed investigations of particular cases and broad-ranging overviews, he contends that criminal justice in the 16th- and 17th-century France was far more humane and less severe than traditional assumptions would suggest. As early as 1588, the High Court began to take steps to restrain indiscriminate witch hunting, particularly in the eastern provinces where prosecutions were instigated not in conformity with, but in defiance of, the highest judicial authority in the land. Le Parlement de Paris, la plus grande cour de justice de l’Occident, nous a légué ses archives criminelles quasiment intactes. Pourtant les historiens des procès de sorcellerie, ainsi que les spécialistes des aspects institutionnels et sociaux de l’Ancien Régime, découragés par les difficultés notoires de la recherche, ont évité l’exploitation de ces documents. Alfred Soman est le premier chercheur à en avoir relevé de défi. Dans cette série de quinze articles, qui comprennent des enquêtes détaillés, ainsi que des essais de synthèse, il soutient que l’ancienne justice a été beaucoup plus clémente et moins ’injuste’ que de vieilles idées reçues ne le prétendent. Dès 1588, la Haute Cour commença à réprimer les nombreuses poursuites pour faits de sorcellerie, plus particulièrement dans l’Est du royaume, où certains sièges subalternes entamaient des actions criminelles intempestatives, prenant le contre-pied de la politique mise en place par le Pouvoir judiciaire central.