Political Science Of The State

360 POLITICAL SCIENCE.
L
tonal jurisdiction or immunity from the counts' control,
together with military obligations attached to the tenure of
land. (Comp. § I/O.) And another fine example of the
growth of institutions is furnished by the rise of the mediae-
val towns in a large part of Europe. But of these we have
either spoken already or they are too vast a field for the
present essay. The same may be said of the new growth of
monarchy in Europe, after it had lost nearly all its powers by
the encroachments of the feudal nobility. This is an insti-
tution, the highest in the state, rehabilitated in conformity
with the new wants of. society for unity and order, which
wants did not act with any plan of reform, but in a blind way
and by a thousand new steps in the dark. An institution of
the French monarchy, the parliament, we may sever from
the other instruments of its advance as an additional instance
of the growth of institutions and as being within the compass
of the present sketch.
4. The French Parliaments, especially the parliament of
French pariia- Par^s- The word parliament, from parabola,
ments> a parable, which came to be used in later Latin
in the sense of word (Span, palabra, old Ital. paraula, Fr.
parole), gave birth to parlare, parler, and these to parlamento,
a talk, a parley, a meeting for counsel or assembly, a coun-
cil, parliament. Hence in French and Italian the derived
verbs parlamentare, parlementer, denote the holding of a -par-
ley between officers respecting the surrender of a town, and
a cartel-ship is called &parleinentaire. (Comp. ^ 183, p.62.)
The kings of France held their curia, like their vassals,
where both deliberations on public affairs, and important
trials took place* Here were gathered the great royal offi-
cers, the bishops and abbots depending immediately on the
king, some inferior crown-vassals, and royal counsellors skilled
in law, lay or clerical. At first, matters of state and matters
of justice came before all called to the council or curia regis
alike. In the thirteenth century this curia was divided.
The meeting where the affairs of state were considered bore
the name of consilium regis ; that where trials at law