The position of the feudal lords was further lowered and that of the shōgun made more secure when, with a consummate tact, Iyemitsu, the third Tokugawa, annulled the formal distinction between the _tozama_ and _fudai_ barons, and reduced the former to the level of the latter. On his accession he summoned to the palace in Edo all the _tozama_ barons, and addressed them as follows: "Our ancestor, having been originally of the same rank with yourselves and enabled to pacify the country through your assistance, was prompted by a sentiment of deference to refrain from classing you with the _fudai_ barons. But I differ from my ancestor in that I was born to the position which he acquired, and am under no obligation to preserve any distinction. It is therefore my intention to place you on the same footing as the _fudai_. Should this be displeasing to any of you, an interval of three years will now be given you, during which time you should consider the matter maturely in your own dominions and come to a final decision." Then, adding that the creed of the _samurai_ was to guard with weapons of war the things acquired by such means, he presented to each of the barons a sword. This injunction, at once so frank and so irresistible, evoked no dissent. The barons acquiesced respectfully, but the greater _tozama_ never forgot the position they once held, and their loyalty was often more formal than sincere, until after 1860, when some of them turned open enemies of the Tokugawa. The Tokugawa's policy toward the imperial house and the civil nobility at Kyōto was not less clever and effective than the control of the _daimio_. Theoretically, the shōgun derived his powers primarily from the emperor, and ruled his vassals under the authority delegated to him by the sovereign. The Tokugawa showed deference to this theory by making every effort to enhance the social position and enrich the temporal domains of the emperor. But it was at the same time important for the shōgun that the exercise of his executive power should not be inconveniently hampered by interference on the part of the court. Hence, in the same year that saw the promulgation of the military statutes, 1615, Iyeyasu compiled a law of seventeen articles destined chiefly for observance by the court nobles, and entitled "_Kinchū Jomoku_," or palace regulations. In this law we find provisions recapitulating orders issued by the emperor in the Kwampei era, to the effect that men should study the ancient poetry of Japan, that the prime minister, the minister of the left, and the minister of the right should rank above the princes of the blood; that the ranks held by _samurai_ should be considered entirely distinct from those held by court nobles, and so forth. Men said that this law was designed to augment the prestige of the imperial house, but in reality it set limits to the exercise of the sovereign's authority. The principal official of the shōgun's government, the