SUPREMACY OF THE CROWN. 57 invasion of Kavarre that Philippe took him into favor and re- stored his castles, on his renouncing all allegiance to Aragon. Thus the last show of independence in the South was broken down, and the monarchy was securely planted on its ruins.* This consolidation of the south of France under the kings of Paris was not without compensating advantages. The monarch was rapidly acquiring a centralized power, which was very differ- ent from the overlordship of a feudal suzerain. The study of the Roman law was beginning to bear fruit in the State as well as in the Church, and the imperial theories of absolutism as inherent in kingship were gradually altering all the old relations. The king's court was expanding into the Parlement, and was training a school of subtle and resolute civil lawyers who lost no opportunity of ex- tending the royal jurisdiction, and of legislating for the whole land in the guise of rendering judgments. In the appeals which came ever more thickly crowding into the Parlement from every quar- ter, the mailed baron found himself hopelessly entangled in the legal intricacies which were robbing him of his seignorial rights almost without his knowledge ; and the Ordonnances, or general laws, which emanated from the throne, were constantly encroach- ing on old privileges, weakening local jurisdictions, and giving to the whole country a body of jurisprudence in which the crown combined both the legislative and the executive functions. If it thus was enabled to oppress, it was likewise stronger to defend, while the immense extension of the royal domains since the begin- ning of the century gave it the physical ability to enforce its grow- ing prerogatives. It was impossible that this metamorphosis in the national in- stitutions could be effected without greatly modifying the rela- tions between Church and State. Thus even the sainthness of Louis IX. did not prevent him from defending himself and his subjects from ecclesiastical domination in a spirit very different from that which any French monarch had ventured to exhibit since the days of Charlemagne. The change became still more manifest under his grandson, Philippe le Eel. Though but seventeen years of age Avhen he succeeded to the throne in 1286, his rare ability and vigor-
- Vaissette, IV. 3-5, 9-11, 16, 24-5.— Baudouin, Lettres in^dites de Philippe
le Bel, Paris, 1886, p. 125.
