chapter 37 (volume 2).

_Mrs. Thompson, Recollections of Literary Characters and Celebrated Places, volume 2, chapter 1._

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BASLE, Council of.

See PAPACY: A. D. 1431-1448.

BASLE, Treaties of (1795).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1795 (OCTOBER-MAY), and 1795 (JUNE-DECEMBER).

BASOCHE.--BASOCHIENS.

"The Basoche was an association of the 'clercs du Parlement' [Parliament of Paris]. The etymology of the name is uncertain. ... The Basoche is supposed to have been instituted in 1302, by Philippe-le-Bel, who gave it the title of 'Royaume de la Basoche,' and ordered that it should form a tribunal for judging, without appeal, all civil and criminal matters that might arise among the clerks and all actions brought against them. He likewise ordered that the president should be called 'Roi de la Basoche,' and that the king and his subjects should have an annual 'montre' or review. ... Under the reign of Henry III. the number of subjects of the roi de la Basoche amounted to nearly 10,000. ... The members of the Basoche took upon themselves to exhibit plays in the 'Palais,' in which they censured the public manners; indeed they maybe said to have been the first comic authors and actors that appeared in Paris. ...At the commencement of the Revolution, the Basochiens formed a troop, the uniform of which was red, with epaulettes and silver buttons; but they were afterwards disbanded by a decree of the National Assembly."

_History of Paris (London: G. B. Whittaker, 1827),