Chambre Ardente

(literally “burning chamber”), in the 16th century, an extraordinary tribunal for the trial of heretics, placed under the jurisdiction of the parlements of Paris and the provinces of France.

The chambre ardente was an instrument of the Counter-Reformation. The one created by Henry II in 1547 in the Paris parlement was particularly well known. In the course of three years, it condemned about 600 Calvinists, many of whom were burned at the stake.