140 The Period of Constitution Making
was along four main lines. First, the more permanent
group of king's counsellors1 became a more regular and
recognised body. Second, a classification of business
which had probably begun in the preceding reigns re-
sulted in two sessions of this body spring and fall—with
an organisation and perhaps a membership specially
suited to the work—for financial business, to receive the
revenue brought from the counties by the sheriffs. It
was the early Exchequer.2 Third, to give better atten-
tion to the king's interests in the localities, he sent out
members of his court from time to time on circuits,i 'or
"iters," that they might from close, personal inspection
accomplish what they could not from a distance. Fourth,
the judicial work of the court began to extend beyond cases
in which the king or its members were personally con-
cerned, and limitless possibilities of judicial growth were
opened when civil, suits between man and man began to
bejentjerja^ed. The two lastrtiamed developments need
further discussion here.
The practice of sending members of the court into the
localities to transact the king's business was fitful and
uncertain at first and was used only when there was some-
thing exceptional to be done; but before the end of the
reign it had become an established custom.3 The things
that these itinerant members did were the same in general
character as those done by the central body; they looked
after wardships and escheated property, inspected arms,
took oaths of fidelity to the king, saw whether any one
had left the kingdom or built a new castle, saw that the
king had his rights in such judicial matters as he might
be concerned in, attended to all matters touching the
royal revenue—in short, they did all the royal business
1 See above, p. 119.
s Ibid., p. 124. The primitive Mng's court transacted any kind of
king's business just as it happened to come up. Pressure of worls taught it
the economy of time andjabpur in doing all of'dile kind'at one, tir$e,,
financial business was the ferst so classified*""'""*""""*"""*"'""'"'""" " ''' ~w """*'"'""
* "There were occasional 'instance's of this practice in the earlier Norman
reigns and even before the Conquest. For an instance in the reign of Wil-
liam II., see A. and S., document 6.