DRAWING UP OF THE STATUTES.
We will now give our readers a brief sketch of the position held by the
various classes during these three centuries. The knights and citizens,
the former principally French and Italian by birth, and the latter
Greeks, Romans, Syrians, and Jews, were free. The patrician families
in the towns took rank with the knights, and the household slaves were
under the protection of the Government. The peasantry, on the contrary,
were all held in bondage, and may be divided into three classes. The
first class gave their lord two days’ service in the week, paid a
poll-tax, and a third of all profits. The second class only paid the
poll-tax, but were compelled to remain upon the land, whilst the third
class (ελευθερα) were free to change their master, but were compelled
to pay the half of their earnings to the lord under whose protection
they preferred to live.
The king held his crown in the character of vassal to the German
Emperor, and the heir-apparent was called Prince of Antioch. The chief
officials of the crown were the Seneschal, Marshal, Chamberlain,
and Constable; after them came the baronial vassals (_les hommes du
royaume_), and next in order their dependents (_les hommes liges_). The
barons were privileged to carry a square banner, with the motto “Cour,
coin, justice,” to indicate that they enjoyed the homage and tribute
of their serfs, and had power to chastise the latter by right of law.
The eldest son inherited the fief, and in default of male issue, the
eldest daughter. Homage had to be rendered for feudal tenure, and was
performed in this wise: The vassal, male and female, knelt before the
king, who took their hands in his own, whilst they declared themselves
his true vassals, “ready to protect and revenge him to their last
breath.” To which the king replied: “In God’s name and my own I receive
your homage.”
If the vassal was a lady above twelve years old, her feudal lord was
obliged to give her the choice of three knights, one of whom she must
marry within a given time; should she refuse, her fief was forfeited
for a year and a day, and she was called upon every year to yield until
she was sixty years of age. Should the feudal chief on the contrary
neglect this part of his duty, the lady was privileged to demand a
choice of three knights, and bestow her hand on the one she preferred.
All the barons appeared at stated times at the high court, accompanied
by their vassals. In these assemblies all kind of weighty business was
discussed in presence of the king, disputes arranged, and sentences
of death passed for heavy crimes. There was also a lower court for
the decision of legal suits. One of the decrees is worthy of note:
“Whoever shall appear in this court and bear false witness, be he the
noblest in the land, he shall lose his head.” The court was composed
of the king’s vicomte or deputy, and twelve sworn justices chosen from
the free citizens. All questions of the privileges of the citizens and
commercial rights, as well as of theft and falsehood, were brought
before this court. The laws and statutes in force were contained in a
volume called “The Assizes of Jerusalem,” the “Livres des Assises et
Bons Coutumes,” a splendid memorial of painstaking wisdom and anxious
thought.
It has been stated that this fine collection of statutes was compiled
by Godfrey de Bouillon, with the assistance of the wisest and noblest
of his followers, after the conquest of Jerusalem. This was most
probably a mere fable. Certain, however, it is that a double volume
of laws, one for the upper, and the other for the lower court, was
compiled in Jerusalem, inscribed in large letters, and sealed by the
king, patriarch, and vicomte. This work was enclosed in a chest and
deposited in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was decreed that the
volume should not be taken from the chest except in the presence of
those who had signed it, two priests belonging to the church, and four
magistrates.
This collection of statutes was also known as the “Lettres du
Sépulcre.” After the loss of Jerusalem this volume disappeared,
but the same statutes were enforced in the high court at Akkon or
Ptolomais, and were adopted in Cyprus. From thence they were taken to
Constantinople in 1204, and to the Morea in 1210.
In the schools of jurisprudence in Nikosia the statutes contained in
the “Assizes of Jerusalem,” were brought to great perfection with the
aid of many able and leading men in the island; of these latter a long
list of names has been preserved. The founder of this famous school
of law, John d’Ibelin, Baron of Beyrout, was called John the Old, to
distinguish him from his nephew, who bore the same name.
This noble, and Philip of Navarre, who boasted of having been present
at every siege and attack of any importance in his time, were the most
celebrated of this noteworthy group of public benefactors. Amongst
other names, were those of Ralph of Tiberias, Godfrey le Tort, Gerard
of Montreal, and John of Ibelin, Count of Jaffa and Askalon, and nephew
of John the Old. The elder Ibelin and Philip of Navarre had been
leaders in the long and bloody strife in which French chivalry in the
East had frustrated the plans of the Emperor Frederick the Second,[3]
who was anxious to combine the political and military strength of
Cyprus under his own imperial rule.
All the other knightly law-makers above enumerated, took part in this
war. This emperor, who had already overcome the unruly nobility of
his Italian dominions, had attained so high a reputation for wisdom
and justice during his sojourn in the East, that many of the highest
in rank and intellect supported his claims either openly or secretly.
Philip of Navarre, who had diligently searched through many collections
of laws, set himself to obtain all possible assistance from the law
courts of Nikosia, Akkon, and Beyrout, and completed his arduous
labours by arranging his materials into one grand statute book. This
valuable work was afterwards considerably improved and enlarged by John
of Ibelin. Like the “Lettres du Sépulcre,” this work was sealed up and
placed in the cathedral in Nikosia, and might only be opened in the
presence of the king and four barons: In this volume we find the entire
code of the Middle Ages, and might take to heart many a lesson from
the careful wisdom and far-seeing acuteness with which its laws were
compiled.