ovable from place to place, and having no special
locality where instructions might be given as to modes of procedure, for
the hearing of witnesses, and for keeping the accused in custody, &c. A
former statute provided for this probable difficulty, but there seems to
be no proof that previous to the twelfth century any fixed courts of
justice had been established. The Kings, and likewise the counts, held
courts in the open air at the entrance to the palace (Fig. 302), or in
some other public place--under a large tree, for instance, as St. Louis
did in the wood of Vincennes.

M. Desmaze, in his valuable researches on the history of the Parliament of
Paris, says--"In 1191, Philip Augustus, before starting for Palestine,
established bailiwicks, which held their assizes once a month; during
their sitting they heard all those who had complaints to make, and gave
summary judgment. The bailiff's assize was held at stated periods from
time to time, and at a fixed place; it was composed of five judges, the
King deciding the number and quality of the persons who were to take part
in the deliberations of the court for each session. The royal court only
sat when it pleased the King to order it; it accompanied the King wherever
he went, so that it had no settled place of residence."

Louis IX. ordered that the courts of the nobles should be consolidated
with the King's court, and succeeded in carrying out this reform. The
bailiffs who were the direct delegates of the sovereign power, assumed an
authority before which even the feudal lord was obliged to bend, because
this authority was supported by the people, who were at that time
organized in corporations, and these corporations were again bound
together in communes. Under the bailiffs a system was developed, the
principles of which more nearly resembled the Roman legislation than the
right of custom, which it nevertheless respected, and the judicial trial
by duel completely disappeared. Inquiries and appeals were much resorted
to in all kinds of proceedings, and Louis IX. succeeded in controlling the
power of ecclesiastical courts, which had been much abused in reference to
excommunication. He also suppressed the arbitrary and ruinous
confiscations which the nobles had unjustly made on their vassals.

[Illustration: Fig. 302.--The Palace as it was in the Sixteenth
Century.--After an Engraving of that Period, National Library of Paris
(Cabinet des Estampes).]

The edict of 1276