But this was not all.  The Parliament of Paris,—­a court of justice,—­filled with the idea that law is not a means, but an end, tried to interpose forms between the Master of France and the vermin he was exterminating.  That Parisian court might, years before, have done something.  They might have insisted that petty quibbles set forth by the lawyers of Paris should not defeat the eternal laws of retribution set forth by the Lawgiver of the Universe.  That they had not done, and the time for legal forms had gone by.  The Paris Parliament would not see this, and Richelieu crushed the Parliament.  Then the Court of Aids refused to grant supplies, and he crushed that court.  In all this the nation braced him.  Woe to the courts of a nation, when they have forced the great body of plain men to regard legality as injustice!—­woe to the councils of a nation, when they have forced the great body of plain men to regard legislation as traffic!—­woe, thrice repeated, to gentlemen of the small pettifogger sort, when they have brought such times, and God has brought a man to fit them!

There was now in France no man who could stand against the statesman’s purpose.

And so, having hewn, through all that anarchy and bigotry and selfishness, a way for the people, he called them to the work.  In 1626 he summoned an assembly to carry out reforms.  It was essentially a people’s assembly.  That anarchical States-General, domineered by great nobles, he would not call; but he called an Assembly of Notables.  In this was not one prince or duke, and two-thirds of the members came directly from the people.  Into this body he thrust some of his own energy.  Measures were taken for the creation of a navy.  An idea was now carried into effect which many suppose to have sprung from the French Revolution; for the army was made more effective by opening its high grades to the commons.[A] A reform was also made in taxation, and shrewd measures were taken to spread commerce and industry by calling the nobility into them.

[Footnote A:  See the ordonnances in Thierry, Histoire du Tiers Etat.]

Thus did France, under his guidance, secure order and progress.  Calmly he destroyed all useless feudal castles which had so long overawed the people and defied the monarchy.  He abolished also the military titles of Grand Admiral and High Constable, which had hitherto given the army and navy into the hands of leading noble families.  He destroyed some troublesome remnants of feudal courts, and created royal courts:  in one year that of Poitiers alone punished for exactions and violence against the people more than two hundred nobles.  Greatest step of all, he deposed the hereditary noble governors, and placed in their stead governors taken from the people,—­Intendants,—­responsible to the central authority alone.[B]

[Footnote B:  For the best sketch of this see Caillet, L’Administration sous Richelieu.]