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altho its strength did not become great enough to give char- 
acter to the law until the time of James I, yet it did accom- 
plish many reforms in both substantive law and legal pro- 
cedure in the present period. For this reason it may be best 
to give an account of the origin and accomplishments of the 
court in this period before undertaking to describe the ante- 
cedent rights, remedial rights, courts, and legal procedure of 
the period in general. 
When the three courts — Exchequer, Common Pleas, and 
King’s Bench — were carved out of the Curia Regis, not all 
of its legal business was taken away from it, or from the 
Council, from which it had been separated. This legal busi- 
ness consisted of appellate jurisdiction over the three courts 
and original jurisdiction over matters not given to them. 
This was the remnant of the King’s prerogative of justice. 
This was now exercised by the king in his Council in Parlia- 
ment. Parliament was composed of the magnates of the 
realm ; the Council of such of these as the king especially called 
to advise him in judicial business. By the time of Richard 
II the Council no longer sat in Parliament, and in the course 
of time the Lords (of Parliament) only heard appeals by writ 
of error. The chancellor was the king’s first minister, presi- 
dent of the Council, and usually a bishop, and he gradually 
took on the legal work which the Council had to do. All writs 
had to issue out of his office, for he was the head of the legal 
department. Petitions were addressed to the king and con- 
sidered by him in Council. Where they were within the com- 
mon law they were met by the issuance of a writ. Where 
they were not they were decided generally by the Council. 
By the time of Edward III petitions began to be addressed 
directly to the chancellor, instead of to the king or Council, 
but it is doubtful whether at this time there was a Court 
of Chancery apart from the Council. But slowly people began 
to think of him as having a jurisdiction distinct from that of 
the Council, common law (both civil and criminal), as well as 
equity. The distinction between common law and equity 
jurisdiction of the chancellor was made about the time of 
Henry VI, and about the time of Henry VII the modern Court 
of Chancery arose. Thus the Court of Chancery was created 
out of the Council very much as the courts of Exchequer, 
Common Pleas, and King’s Bench had formerly been created. 
