a stationary court of justice, the seat of which
was fixed at the chief town. During the 15th and 16th centuries ambulatory
assizes diminished in both frequency and importance. In the 17th and 18th
centuries they were no more than a survival, the _lieutenant_ of such a
_bailliage_ having preserved the right to hold one assize each year at a
certain locality in his district. The ancient bailiff or _bailli d'epee_
still existed, however; the judgments in the tribunal of the bailliage were
delivered in his name, and he was responsible for their execution. So long
as the military service of the _ban_ and _arriere ban_, due to the king
from all fief-holders, was maintained (and it was still in force at the end
of the 17th century), it was the bailiffs who organized it. Finally the
_bailliage_ became in principle the electoral district for the
states-general, the unit represented therein by its three estates. The
justiciary nobles retained their judges, often called bailiffs, until the
Revolution. These judges, who were competent to decide questions as to the
payment of seigniorial dues could not, legally at all events, themselves
farm those revenues.

See Dupont Ferrier, _Les Officiers royaux des bailliages et senechaussees
et les institutions monarchiques locales en France a la fin du moyen age_
(1902); Armand Brette, _Recueil de documents relatifs a la convocation des
etats-generaux de 1789_ (3 vols. 1904) (vol. iii. gives the condition of
the _bailliages_ and _senechaussees_ in 1789).

(J. P. E.)

BAILLET, ADRIEN (1649-1706), French scholar and critic, was born on the
13th of June 1649, at the village of Neuville near Beauvais, in Picardy.
His parents could only afford to send him to a small school in the village,
but he picked up some Latin from the friars of a neighbouring convent, who
brought him under the notice of the bishop of Beauvais. By his kindness
Baillet received a thorough education at the theological seminary, and was
afterwards appointed to a post as teacher in the college of Beauvais. In
1676 he was ordained priest and was presented to a small vicarage. He
accepted in 1680 the appointment of librarian to M. de Lamoignon,
advocate-general to the _parlement_ of Paris, of whose library he made a
_catalogue raisonne_ (35 vols.), all written with his own hand. The
remainder of his life was spent in incessant, unremitting labour; so keen
was his devotion to study that he allowed himself only five hours a day fo