DES INSTITUTIONS LOCALES
Leff. Wtll. T. Il, n. 176, p. 545.
« There are three courts of law : a court of a cantrev and cymwd ; a superior court or a court of lord, or Idng with his domimon ; and a conventional court of sovereignty and federate country, and that suprême over the olher two. »
« There are three raiths of law : the sovereign raith of convention of kindred of country and federate country for law giving by enacting, or abrogating, or improving of law , and wich is called the raith of sovereignty and federate country; secondly , the raith of country, wich is called (he raith of three hundred persons; thirdly, the raith of court, and that is by judges or elders of a country or kindred under the protection and under the privilège of the court that shall give it, from seven unto fifly persons. »
Ibid., n. I, p. 365.
When Howel the good, long of cymry, modified the laws of kymru he permitted various privilèges to various persons of his Idngdom. And, in the first place, he permitted every ecclesiastical lord, such as the archbishop of Menevia, or others bishops and abbots, royal privilège for holding pleas among their laies, by the common law of kymru. And likewise, he permitted every chief ^ to whom there might belong a cymtod, or cantrev^ or more, to hold a daily royal court of privileged officers, is number as he should deem proper, in a similar manner to himself ; and privilège to hold a royal court of pleas in his country, among his uchelwrs. And he permitted every uchelwr to hold his own land aocording to the privilège, and to rule his bondmen according to conditional bondage in South Wales, and perpétuai bondage in Gwyned. The king's villains are to be regulated according to the privilège and law of the taeogtrev in which they may dwell, and that according to bond service and rent.
And, likewise, he allowed to every one without land or office the natural privilège be was bom with.
ibid. T. I, n. 110, p. 469.
There are three kinds of judges in kymru, according to the law of Hywel the good : a judge of the suprême court by virtue of office, continually with the kings of Dinevwr and Aberfraw ; and one judge of a cymwd or cantrev, by virtue of office, in every court of pleas, in Gwynedd and Powis; and a judge, by privilège of land , in every court of a cymtcd or cantrev, in South Wales; that is to say, every owner of land. Every officiai judge is to bave four légal pence for every judgment, of that amount in value, from the party in whose faveur he décides ; a judge par privilège of his land, however, is not to bave worth for his judgement; because il is a service atlached to the land.
!iid. T. II. L. X. Ch. XV, % 2, p. 371.
The second is, that a plaint of galanas cannot be prosecuted, except in the présence of the king, or whoever shall hold a court instead of the king ; for power bas not been conceded to any one to compel full rétribution for galanas, but to him who should be lord over ail, that is the king : because it does not accord, by law, to sue from court to court, in pursuit of the same matter; tberefore, that cause is to go to a conventional court a third of every galanas, of which the king shall compel payment, is awarded to him, in lieu of punishment, for enforcing the other portion for the kindred, as the law sbares among them.
Ibid, T. II. U X. Ch. XIII, % 3, p. 367.
Hence a man of a court is not to carry bis suit to the church, more than a man of the church to the court : because the sword enforces the rights of Ihe crozier.
