ind out either by their own knowledge or by
private inquiry the truth of the matter. If they were unanimous their
verdict was accepted as final. If not, other knights were added to
them, and when at last twelve were found agreeing, their agreement was
held to settle the question.

12. =The Germ of the Jury.=--Thus, whilst in criminal cases the local
knowledge of sworn accusers was treated as satisfactory evidence of
guilt, in civil cases a system was growing up in which is to be traced
the germ of the modern jury. The Recognitors did not indeed hear
evidence in public or become judges of the fact, like the modern jury;
they were rather sworn witnesses, allowed to form an opinion not
merely, like modern witnesses, on what they had actually seen or
heard, but also on what they could gather by private inquiry.

13. =The Itinerant Justices Revived.=--To carry out this system Henry
renewed his grandfather's experiment of sending members of the _Curia
Regis_ as itinerant justices visiting the counties. They held what
were called the pleas of the crown--that is to say, trials which were
brought before the king's judges instead of being tried either in the
county courts or the manorial courts. Both these judges and the king
had every interest in getting as much business before their courts as
possible. Offenders were fined and suitors had to pay fees, and the
best chance of increasing these profits was to attract suitors by
administering justice better than the local courts. The more thronged
were the king's courts, the more rich and powerful he became. The
consequent growth of the influence of the itinerant justices was no
doubt offensive to the lords of the manor, and especially to the
greater landowners, as diminishing their importance, and calling them
to account whenever they attempted to encroach on their less powerful
neighbours.

14. =The Inquisition of the Sheriffs. 1170.=--It was not long before
Henry discovered another way of diminishing the power of the barons.
In the early part of his reign the sheriffs of the counties were still
selected from the great landowners, and the sheriff was not merely the
collector of the king's revenue in his county, but had, since the
Conquest, assumed a new importance in the county court, over which in
the older times the ealdorman or earl and the bishop had presided.
Since the Conquest the bishop, having a court of his own for
ecclesiastical matters, had ceased to take part in its