Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


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.

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