Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1st ed, 1768, vol III).djvu/51

 Ch. 4. WRONGS. 39 common law, at that particular juncture and that particular place, gave rife to the inns of court in it's neighbourhood ; and thereby collecting together the whole body of the common law- yers, enabled the law itfelf to withftand the attacks of the ca- nonifts and civilians, who laboured to extirpate and deftroy it. This precedent was foon after copied by king Philip the fair in France, who about the year 1302 fixed the parliament of Paris to abide conftantly in that metropolis ; which before ufed to follow the perfon of the king, wherever he went, and in which he himfelf ufed frequently to decide the caufes that were there depending : but all were then referred to the fole cognizance of the parlia- ment and it's learned judges. And thus alfo in 1495 the em- peror Maximilian I. fixed the imperial chamber (which before always travelled with the court and houfhold ) to be conftantly held at Worms, from whence it was afterwards tranflated to Spire.

aula regia being thus ftripped of fo considerable a branch of it's jurifdidlion, and the power of the chief jufticiar being alfo confiderably curbed by many articles in the great charter, the authority of both began to decline apace under the long and troubleibme reign of king Henry III. And, in farther purfuance of this example, the other feveral offices of the chief jufticiar were under Edward the firft (who new-modelled the whole frame of our judicial polity) fubdivided and broken into diftincl courts of judicature. A court of chivalry was creeled, over which the conftable and marefchal prefided j as did the fteward of the houfhold over another, conftituted to regulate the king's domeftic fervants. The high fteward, with the barons of parliament, formed an auguft tribunal for the trial of delinquent peers ; and the barons referved to themfelves in parliament the right of re- viewing the fentences of other courts in the laft refort. The diftribution of common juftice between man and man was thrown into fo provident an order, that the great judicial officers were

i See vol. 1. introd. §. 1. k Mod. Un. Hit, xxiii. 396. l Ibid. xxix. 467. Rh