“On his return from abroad, Louis IX. took his seat upon the bench, and administered justice, by the side of the good provost of Paris.”  This provost was no other than the learned Estienne Boileau, out of respect to whom the provostship was declared a charge de magistrature.  The increase of business which fell to the provost’s office, especially after the boundaries of Paris were extended by Philip Augustus, caused him to be released from the duty of collecting the public taxes.  He was authorised to furnish himself with competent assistants, who were employed with matters of minor detail, and he was allowed the assistance of juges auditeurs.  “We order that they shall be eight in number,” says an edict of Philippe le Bel, of February, 1324, “four of them being ecclesiastics and four laymen, and that they shall assemble at the Chatelet two days in the week, to take into consideration the suits and causes in concert with our provost....”  In 1343, the provost’s court was composed of one King’s attorney, one civil commissioner, two King’s counsel, eight councillors, and one criminal commissioner, whose sittings took place daily at the Chatelet.

From the year 1340 this tribunal had to adjudicate in reference to all the affairs of the university, and from the 6th of October, 1380, to all those of the salt-fish market, which were no less numerous, so that its importance increased considerably.  Unfortunately, numerous abuses were introduced into this municipal jurisdiction.  In 1313 and 1320, the officers of the Chatelet were suspended, on account of the extortions which they were guilty of, and the King ordered an inquiry to be made into the matter.  The provost and two councillors of the Parliament sat upon it, and Philip de Valois, adopting its decisions, prescribed fresh statutes, which were naturally framed in such a way as to show the distrust in which the Chatelet was then held.  To these the officers of the Chatelet promised on oath to submit.  The ignorance and immorality of the lay officers, who had been substituted for the clerical, caused much disturbance.  Parliament authorised two of its principal members to examine the officers of the Chatelet.  Twenty years later, on the receipt of fresh complaints, Parliament decided that three qualified councillors, chosen from its own body, should proceed with the King’s attorney to the Chatelet, so as to reform the abuses and informalities of that court.

[Illustration:  Fig. 304.—­The King’s Court, or Grand Council.—­Fac-simile of a Miniature in the “Chroniques” of Froissart, Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (formerly in the possession of Charles V), in the Library of the Arsenal, Paris.]