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Indiana University Studies 
he gave it, what the hundred and county courts had not gen- 
erally had, the power to enforce a judgment against a power- 
ful wrongdoer. As business increased, a division of labor 
became necessary, and the term “Curia Regis” was applied to 
those who acted as a judicial body, while the councilors of 
the king took the name of concilium ordinarium. This divi- 
sion took place in the time of Henry II. A further division 
of the Curia Regis became necessary in the time of Henry II, 
and a Court of Exchequer was established to deal with finan- 
cial matters and the collection of the royal revenue. The 
judges of this court were called barons of the Exchequer, with 
the chief baron as president. Another court was carved out 
of the Curia Regis in the time of Henry III by the forma- 
tion of the Court of Common Pleas, or Common Bench. Its 
jurisdiction extended to all civil cases between subject and 
subject, which were called “common pleas” to distinguish them 
from “pleas of the crown”. It had exclusive jurisdiction in 
all real actions, debt, and covenant. Magna Charta provided 
that it should sit in one place, and Westminster Hall was 
fixed upon. The judges of this court were called justices, 
with the lord chief justice as president. After the establish- 
ment of this court there remained in the Curia Regis all crim- 
inal jurisdiction, all appellate jurisdiction from inferior 
courts, and any civil business not transferred to the Exchequer 
and Common Pleas. The Curia Regis came to be called 
“Bancum Regis”, and then the Court of King’s Bench. It 
became a separate court in the time of Henry III. It ab- 
sorbed all the business of the Curia Regis except perhaps the 
ultimate appeal. It had two sides, a crown side and a plea 
side. The crown side was concerned with criminal matters, 
appeals from inferior courts, liberty of the subject, and con- 
trol of corporations. It issued the writs of mandamus, habeas 
corpus, and quo warranto, when they .came into use in the 
Strict Period. On the plea side it had jurisdiction of all 
actions of trespass. The King’s Bench was the highest court 
in the land. The king was supposed to sit there, altho no 
king until James I actually did sit in it. It had appellate 
jurisdiction over the Common Pleas. 
In addition to the above courts, during this period there was 
established a system of itinerant justices (justices in eyre). 
They were appointed and sent by royal commission, but gen- 
