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AGaine, after all this also, when not only the multitude of men was growne infinite; but wicked∣nesse also was much increased with the time: and consequently conten∣tions waxed so many in number, and manifold in matter, as neither any one person was found able to de∣termine the Suits, nor any one place sufficed to containe the Suitors: Then accordingly (as Iethro advi∣sed Moses) the Iurisdiction (or chardge of administring Iustice) was first
broken into parts, the hearing of causes was divided amongst many persons, and sundry places were ap∣pointed to that speciall end, and service. Whereof it came to passe, that the Israelites (which were the first people of the world, to whom any written Law was given) did pro∣nounce their Iudgements in the Gates of every Citie, to the end, that both all men might behold the indifferencie of their procee∣dings, and that no man should need to goe out of his way to seeke Iu∣stice.
The old Romans first within their Temples, of purpose to shew that Iudgement was a Divine thing; then afterward in Curia & Foro. The A∣thenians also, and their Temple cal∣led (by reason of a speciall judge∣ment) Areopagus, and in the places called Palladium and Pritaneum: And albeit that the Gauls (our
Neighbours, that bee now called Frenchmen) did hold their Assem∣blies for Iustice only at Carnute or Chartres, a place so situate in the middest of their Countrie, that all the people might have indifferent resort thereunto: After which or∣der also the Britans of this Iland did make their like meetings as it might be well gathered out of Cae∣sars Commentaries, where he plainly writeth, that those Druydes (which then were the Iudges amongst the Gauls) had fetched that their man∣ner of Discipline out of Britaine, where wee now dwell: Yet never∣thelesse, the Saxons, our Ancestors, (which succeeded them in this Countrie) they (I say) retained the manner of the old Germans, their owne Elders, who (as Tacitus wri∣teth) Iura per pagos vicosque redde∣bant; and they made distribution of Iustice, not onely in one Towne,
or in the Princes Palace, but also at sundry other speciall places within the Countrie.
And truly, the Normans (that in∣vaded the posteritie of the same Saxons here) did not so much alter the substance, as the name of the Saxons order, which they found at their comming hither.
For (in effect) they did but change the word Gemot, which in the Saxon tongue signified an Assem∣bly (or Meeting) into the French word Court, or Cour; (for so it is also found written) being a terme of the selfe-same force and signification.
Of Courts.