28.39. 39. The same Subject continued.
The judiciary forms introduced by
St. Louis fell into disuse. This prince had not so much in view the
thing itself, that is, the best manner of trying causes, as the best
manner of supplying the ancient practice of trial. The principal intent
was to give a disrelish of the ancient jurisprudence, and the next to
form a new one. But when the inconveniences of the latter appeared,
another soon succeeded.
The Institutions of St. Louis did not, therefore, so much change the
French jurisprudence as they afforded the means of changing it; they
opened new tribunals, or rather ways to come at them. And when once the
public had easy access to the superior courts, the judgments which
before constituted only the usages of a particular lordship formed a
universal digest. By means of the Institutions, they had obtained
general decisions, which were entirely wanting in the kingdom; when the
building was finished, they let the scaffold fall to the ground.
Thus the Institutions produced effects which could hardly be
expected from a masterpiece of legislation. To prepare great changes
whole ages are sometimes requisite; the events ripen, and the
revolutions follow.
The parliament judged in the last resort of almost all the affairs
of the kingdom. Before,
[287]
it took cognizance only of disputes between
the dukes, counts, barons, bishops, abbots, or between the king and his
vassals,
[288]
rather in the relation they bore to the political than to
the civil order. They were soon obliged to render it permanent, whereas
it used to be held only a few times in a year: and, in fine, a great
number were created; in order to be sufficient for the decision of all
manner of causes.
No sooner had the parliament become a fixed body, than they began to
compile its decrees. Jean de Monluc, in the reign of Philip the Fair,
made a collection which at present is known by the name of the Olim
registers.
[289]
Footnotes
[287]
See Du Tillet on the court of peers. See also Laroche, Flavin,
Budeus and Paulus Æmilius, book i, chap. 3.
[288]
Other causes were decided by the ordinary tribunals.
[289]
See the President Henault's excellent abridgment of the "History
of France" in the year 1313.
