JUDICIAL AND EXECUTIVE SYSTEMS. 503 



possessed only by ecclesiastics, judicial functions fell more 

 and more into their hands. Sundry causes conspired to pro 

 duce this transfer. One was lack of culture among the 

 nobles, and their decreasing ability to administer laws, ever 

 increasing in number and in complexity. Another was the 

 political unfitness of ecclesiastics, who grew distasteful to 

 rulers in proportion as they pushed further the powers and 

 privileges which their supposed divine commission gave them. 

 Details need not detain us. The only general fact needing 

 to be emphasized, is that this transfer ended in a differen 

 tiation of structures. For whereas in earlier stages, judicial 

 functions were discharged by men who were at the same time 

 either soldiers or priests, they came now to be discharged by 

 men exclusively devoted to them. 



526. Simultaneously, the evolution of judicial systems 

 is displayed in several other ways. One of them is the ad 

 dition of judicial agents who are locomotive to the pre-exist 

 ing stationary judicial agents. 



During the early stages in which the ruler administers 

 justice in person, he does this now in one place and now in 

 another ; according as affairs, military or judicial, carry him to 

 this or that place in his kingdom. Societies of various types 

 in various times yield evidence. Historians of ancient Peru 

 tell us that &quot; the Ynca gave sentence according to the 

 crime, for he alone was judge wheresoever he resided, and 

 all persons wronged had recourse to him.&quot; Of the German 

 emperor in the 12th century we read that &quot; not only did 

 he receive appeals, but his presence in any duchy or county 

 suspended the functions of the local judges.&quot; France 

 in the 15th century supplies an instance. King Charles 

 &quot; spent two or three years in travelling up and down the 

 kingdom . . maintaining justice to the satisfaction of his 

 subjects.&quot; In Scotland something similar was done by 

 David I., who &quot; settled marches, forest rights, and rights of 

 pasture : &quot; himself making the marks which recorded his 



