The Templars and the Parisian Builders 105In the temporal sphere, the Templar Order asserted its full manor-
ial independence by exercising in its domain and censive district impor-
tant rights concerning justice and authority over roadways.
Before we look at these rights in detail, a short digression is neces-
sary to examine several points in the history of public law. In the
Middle Ages, the justice handed down by the lords appeared in two dis-
tinct forms: manorial justice and feudal justice.^2
Manorial justice was an infeudated dismemberment of public
power. The lord served as the judge in civil, criminal, and administra-
tive trials within his seigniorial borders and over all the inhabitants of
his seigniorial domain. Not all lords had an equally extensive authority,
however. Two degrees were recognized: high and low justice. High jus-
tice dealt with every criminal accusation that carried an afflictive
penalty and all civil trials in which a legal battle could take place—in
other words, all major criminal cases. All other cases were the purview
of low justice. It could be quite possible that one lord administered high
justice while another lord in the same location was responsible for met-
ing out low justice.
During the fourteenth century an intermediary—middle justice—
appeared. This feudal or land-based justice was the result not of public
authority but of feudal contracts and tenures and the relationships they
created between men. It had two applications. In the first, the vassal,
through homage, was subject to the jurisdiction of the lord of the fief,
and it was this lord alone that was recognized as a judge in civil or crim-
inal proceedings. In the second, any lord ruling over a feudal tenure had
the exclusive authority to resolve any litigation concerning this tenure.
The lord of the fief was the natural judge of any actions against the vas-
sal by virtue of his authority over that fief. Likewise the lord censier
(who received a censine's taxes) knew the causes concerning the censive
area. We should note that in towns and cities, feudal tenures applied to
houses. We should also be aware that in terms of pure feudal law,
manorial and feudal justices were all of sovereign jurisdiction; their ver-
dict stood as final and there was no right to an appeal.
Now we can look at precisely how the Temple exercised these rights
of feudal and manorial justice in its censive district. In the beginning,
it appears that the Temple possessed the rights of both high and low