[Illustration:  Fig. 310.—­Sergeants-at-Arms of the Fourteenth Century, carved in Stone.—­From the Church of St. Catherine du Val des Ecoliers, in Paris.]

The bailiffs at the Chatelet were divided into five classes:  the king’s sergeant-at-arms, the sergeants de la douzaine, the sergeants of the mace, or foot sergeants, the sergeants fieffes, and the mounted sergeants.  The establishment of these officers dated from the beginning of the fourteenth century, and they were originally appointed by the provost, but afterwards by the King himself.  The King’s sergeants-at-arms (Fig. 310) formed his body-guard; they were not under the jurisdiction of the high constable, but of the ordinary judges, which proves that they were in civil employ.  The sergeants de la douzaine were twelve in number, as their name implies, all of whom were in the service of the provost; the foot sergeants, who were civilians, were gradually increased to the number of two hundred and twenty as early as the middle of the fifteenth century.  They acted only in the interior of the capital, and guarded the city, the suburbs, and the surrounding districts, whereas the mounted sergeants had “to watch over the safety of the rural parishes, and to act throughout the whole extent of the provost’s jurisdiction, and of that of the viscount of Paris.”

In the midst of the changes of the Middle Ages, especially after the communes became free, all those kings who felt the importance of a strict system of justice, particularly St. Louis, Philippe le Bel, and Charles VIII., had seen the necessity of compiling a record of local customs.  An edict of 1453 orders that “the custom shall be registered in writing, so as to be examined by the members of the great council of the Parliament.”  Nevertheless, this important work was never properly carried out, and to Louis XII. is due the honour of introducing a customary or usage law, and at the same time of correcting the various modes of procedure, upon which customs and usages had been based, and which had become singularly antiquated since the edict of 1302.

No monarch showed more favour to Parliament than Louis XII.  During his reign of seventeen years we never find complaints from the magistracy for not having been paid punctually.  But in contrast with this, on the accession of Francis I., the court complained of not having been paid its first quarter’s salary.  From that moment claims were perpetually being made; there were continually delays, or absolute refusals; the members were expecting “remuneration for their services, in order absolutely to enable them to support their families and households.”  We can thus judge of the state of the various minor courts, which, being less powerful than the supreme tribunals, and especially than that of Paris, were quite unable to get their murmurings even listened to by the proper authorities.  This sad state of things continued, and, in fact, grew worse, until the assembly of the League, when Mayenne, the chief of the leaguers, in order to gratify the Parliament, promised to double the salaries, although he was unable to fulfil his promise.