Chambre Ardente

Chambre Ardente ('the fiery chamber'), a name given at different times in France to an extraordinary court of justice, probably on account of the severity of the punishments which it awarded, the most common being that of death by fire. In the year 1535, Francis I. established an Inquisitorial Tribunal and a Chambre Ardente. Both were intended for the extirpation of heresy. The former searched out cases of heresy, and instructed the processes; while the latter both pronounced and executed the final judgment. Under Henri II., the activity of the Chambre Ardente received a new impulse. In 1679 Louis XIV. employed a Chambre Ardente to investigate the numerous reports of poisoning cases which the trial of the Marchioness Brinvilliers (q.v.) caused to be circulated. Many persons of the first rank were examined on suspicion, but no one was executed except the pretended sorcerer, Voisin (1680).