Royalty" and by earls, bishops, abbots, down to the baron, with his
"right of pit and gallows." At such courts, by a law of 1180, the
Sheriff of the shire, or an agent of his, ought to be present; so that
royal and central justice was extending itself over the minor local
courts. But if the sheriff or his sergeant did not attend when summoned,
local justice took its course.

The process initiated by David's son, William the Lion, was very slowly
substituting the royal authority, the royal sheriffs of shires, juries,
and witnesses, for the wild justice of revenge; and trial by ordeal, and
trial by combat. But hereditary jurisdictions of nobles and gentry were
not wholly abolished till after the battle of Culloden! Where Abbots
held courts, their procedure, in civil cases, was based on laws
sanctioned by popes and general councils. But, alas! the Abbot might
give just judgment; to execute it, we know from a curious instance, was
not within his power, if the offender laughed at a sentence of
excommunication.

David and his successors, till the end of the thirteenth century, made
Scotland a more civilised and kept it a much less disturbed country than
it was to remain during the long war of Independence, while the beautiful
abbeys with their churches and schools attested a high stage of art and
education.




CHAPTER VI. MALCOLM THE MAIDEN.