banniatur ... exceptis scabineis septem, qui ad omnia Placita praeesse
debent";[75] and seven seems to have been the usual number expected,
and their attendance was compulsory; though sometimes only two appear,
and in a few cases none at all.

Of all matters relating to this office, the one which is of most
interest to us, and the one which most clearly shows the difference
which was designed to exist between it and that of the other judges,
was the manner in which the office was obtained. In this procedure we
can trace almost distinctly that the object of the central power which
established it was to secure greater justice and greater freedom to
the subjects who came under its jurisdiction. The fact was recognized
by the new government that the power of the local heads was too great
to suit the principle of universal central control, which was the
keynote of Charlemagne's system of administration, and was exercised
in too arbitrary a manner; and that some check was necessary to curb
the spirit and limit the independence of these local lords of the soil
and the city who had little consideration for their inferiors, and who
might at any time become a source of danger to their superiors. Such a
check was found, in regard to the central authority, in the _missi
regii_, and in reference to the general public, in the _scabini_ or
city judges.

In the old Lombard constitution we have seen the gastald, chiefly,
however, in the matter of judicial decisions, exercise a controlling
influence on the arbitrary action of the duke; but as the power of the
count varied from that of the duke, so that of the _scabinus_ differs
from that of the gastald, only perhaps in a greater degree. At the
time when the count assumes the place of his predecessor the duke, the
_scabinus_ displaces the gastald, although he cannot be said to have