lder of it, though only a _Spectabilis_,
admission to our Consistory, where he sits side by side with all the
Illustres.

[Footnote 449: Betokened by the expression 'Ociosum cingulum.']

'We bestow it upon you, and name you a _Comes Primi Ordinis_, thereby
indicating that you are to take your place at the head of all the
other Spectabiles and next after the Illustres. See that you imitate
the latter, and that you are not surpassed in excellence of character
by any of those below you.'

13. FORMULA FOR BESTOWING THE [HONORARY] RANK OF MASTER OF THE BUREAU
[MAGISTER SCRINII] AND COUNT OF THE FIRST ORDER, ON AN OFFICER OF THE
COURTS (COMITIACUS) IN ACTIVE SERVICE.

[Sidenote: Honorary promotion for a Comitiacus.]

'Great toils and great perils are the portion of an officer of the
Courts in giving effect to their sentences. It is easy for the Judge
to say, "Let so and so be done;" but on the unhappy officer falls all
the difficulty and all the odium of doing it. He has to track out
offenders and hunt them to their very beds, to compel the contumacious
to obey the law, to make the proud learn their equality before it. If
he lingers over the business assigned to him, the plaintiff complains;
if he is energetic, the defendant calls out. The very honesty with
which he addresses himself to the work is sure to make him enemies,
enemies perhaps among powerful persons, who next year may be his
superiors in office, and thus subjects him to all sorts of accusations
which he may find it very hard to disprove. In short, if we may say it
without offence to the higher dignitaries, it is far easier to
discharge without censure the functions of a Judge than those of the
humble officer who gives effect to his decrees.

'Wherefore, in reward for your long and faithful service, and in
accordance with ancient usage, we bestow on you the rank of a Count of
the First Order, and ordain that if anyone shall molest you on account
of your acts done in the discharge of your duties, he shall pay a fine
of so many [perhaps ten = L400] pounds of gold.'

[This letter will be found well worth studying in the original, as
giving a picture of the kind of opposition met with by the men who
were charged with the execution of the orders of the Rectores
Provinciarum, and whose functions were themselves partly judicial,
varying between those of a Master in Chancery and those of a Sheriff's
officer. Throughout, the Civil Service is spoken of in military