Vassals were bound to serve their sovereign, in his court, by their advice and justice. The king’s feudal court had a double character, for in it the king called upon his barons for advice and sentences. With the further evolution of royalty the functions of the king’s court developed, and a division became necessary; there was the political court or grand council, and the judiciary court or parliament. Under St. Louis the functions of the parliament were not yet clearly defined. Philip the Fair perfected its organisation. He caused this court to be held at Paris twice a year for two months in the Palais de la Cité, which later bore the name of the Palais de Justice (1303). This sovereign court of justice which claimed to exercise its jurisdiction over the entire kingdom was destined to be the great instrument employed by future kings to bring the whole of France under their absolute authority. Philip also established two _échiquiers_[14] at Rouen and two _grands jours_ at Troyes and placed these provincial courts under the control of the parliament. The office of public prosecutor (_ministère public_) charged with defending in all causes the rights of the king and society, seems to date from the time of Philip the Fair. As the king had formed the parliament from the grand council, so he formed the chamber of accounts (_chambre des comptes_) from the parliament of which it first was a part but later became a separate institution. Thus there were three great divisions in the high administrative department of the country--the judiciary parliament; the financial, chamber of accounts; and the political, the grand council. The many ordinances of Philip which have been preserved prove his activity in organising the new administration, which was the debt of royalty to the country, since it had substituted its own powers for those of the feudal lords. If these laws often bear the stamp of a despotic and taxing spirit, they sometimes show a knowledge of the true principles of government. One of them prohibited private war and judicial duels during wars of the crown. This was done to disarm feudalism.