The history of the Judicial Committee has been often told, and need not detain us long. We have already seen the first appointment of a commission to undertake the judicial work of Parliament. From 1368 to 1532 this cumbrous method was maintained, although the membership of the committee of the "Lords Auditors" was frequently altered, and the acts of parliament contain many references to their sitting. James I introduced a modification into the system. In 1425 the lord chancellor and "sundry discreet persons" of the Estates received power to "examine, conclude, and finally determine" all complaints. In the next reign the judgment of these "lords of session" was declared to be as decisive as that of the Lords Auditors themselves. In 1503 the judicial work of the King's Secret Council was organized and a co-ordinate court was instituted, chosen by the king, and endowed with full powers, so that there were three courts of justice to deal with the numberless grievances of the lieges. The judicial system took its final shape from France. In 1532 King James V proposed "to institute ane college of cunning and wise men baith of spiritual and temporale estate ... to sitt and decyde upon all actiounis civile." The Estates thought this "wele consavit"; and accordingly the cunning and wise men were created into a College of Justice, with a president at its head. It was sanctioned by the Pope, and confirmed by Parliament in 1540, when the Estates granted "to the President, Vice-President, and the Senators power to make such acts, statutes, and ordinances, as they shall think expedient for ordering of process and hasty expedition of Justice." It then consisted of a president, with seven spiritual and seven temporal lords of session,[71] and, with slight modifications, the Court of Session continues to decide all civil cases in Scotland. It represents the Lords Auditors or the original committee of the Estates to which judicial powers were entrusted, and not the judicial work of the Secret Council. So strongly was it felt that the College of Justice was a committee of Estates, that, at first, it did not sit during the meeting of Parliament, which the Lords of Session were expected to attend. Exceptions to the rule occur frequently, and as early as 1538. The High Court of Justiciary was instituted by James VI in 1587, to supersede the old jurisdiction of the justiciar, and was remodelled in the reign of Charles II.