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  Look up any dictionary on the word “court” and you will find its origin is frequently claimed from an alleged 12th Century French word ‘cour’ and then from the earlier Latin word ‘cohort’ is meaning courtyard. Yet is this accurate? And if the word “court” is less than 800 years old, what did they call judicial assemblies before this time? Who created the word “court” and why? If it is only 800 years old, why did the word “court” seem to overtake all other forms of judicial assembly and why? and what is its real meaning?  
     
  Judicial Assemblies during the Hellenic (Greek) Empire  
  Before the rise of the Pagan Roman legal system, the Hellenic legal system conceived partly by Aristotle as tutor and architect behind Alexander the Great conceived of a professional class of judges known as ephetai that would form a new professional class of judges to replace the arkhons (or arkhai as singular) of the “the Eleven” that reviewed imprisonment and execution or the elected “horde” that would decide the fate much like choosing a favorite actor on stage under ancient Athenian law.  
  The Dikastea were a semi-permanent group of several hundred part-time jurors who were appointed to such a position at the beginning of a new year under oath. A normal criminal case might have involved several hundred dikastea members who observed the case virtually like an audience viewing a play as the ampitheatres were used for such court hearings, while much smaller group for normal private disputes.  
  As with all ancient law, Greek law was centered on the truth of the spoken word and the logic of the argument or defense under oath.  
  The Areiopagos adjudicated by the ephetai had four forms and rules of review, the Prutaneion, the Palladion, which dealt with cases of homicide and the killing of non citizens, the Delphinion and the Phreatto.  
     
  Judicial Assemblies during the Roman Empire  
  Under the ancient Pagan Roman Empire, the Chief civil and military magistrates invested with imperium were called Consuls and periodically held called ‘consulatio’ – hence where we get the modern English words and concepts of consult and consultation.  
  Below the Consuls were the Praetors and the Tribunes. However, when the Tribunes met in number of three or greater, they had the power to veto laws, decrees and acts of all other magistrates except dictators (consuls granted extraordinary powers under emergency).  
  Criminal prosecution by late Republic was before one of the quaestiones perpetuae ("standing jury courts"), each with a specific jurisdiction, such as treason (maiestas), electoral corruption (ambitus), extortion in the provinces (repetundae), embezzlement of public funds, murder and poisoning, forgery, violence (vis).  
  Similar to other ancient law, Roman law considered oral testimony as primary evidence. Contrary to deliberate manipulation and corruption of history, there was no “professional class” of jurists within Rome. Instead, a citizen would on occasion, if unable to speak clearly, hire an actor to speak in their place. In such circumstances, the actor was sworn to recite the truth as told to them by the accuser or defendant on their testicals (being removed if they lied) – hence the origin of testimony.  
   
  Judicial Assemblies during the Frankish-Saxon Empires  
  Under the revisions of Anglo-Saxon Law by the Frankish Emperor Charlamagne, two forms of Judicial review and assembly were reconstituted in the 9th Century- the Placitum (minor crime) and the Malum (major crime).  
  A Placitum was presided over by a judge known as a Praesideo, from which the word President is derived. The word Placitum is still known as a cause (before a court) and a plea, a pleading and judicial proceeding. A Mallum was presided over by the regional lord known as a Count, given the seriousness of such charges.  
  However, the most significant reform by the Pippins and later reinforced by the Saxons was the paramount importance of a person’s sworn oath or vow as their “bond” – bringing a return to a principle that was fundamental to both Greek Law, ancient Roman Law and Celtic Law with one twist. Charlemagne enshrined the fact that a man could not be convicted on testimony gained through torture – in other words, our word must be given freely and without duress if it is to be regarded as true and reliable.  
   
  Judicial Assembles under the Venetian/Genoese/Florentine Guilds  
  The creation of the Catholic Church in Rome by the father and uncles of Charlemagne in 751 marked a turning point in Judicial law and assemblies. By 1057, aided by St. Peter “the Venetian”, Gregory VII became the first satanic anti-Pope of the Roman Cult and the world and law would never be the same again.  
  Aided by the Medieval Warming Period and their new found claims of right over all of Christianity through the false Roman Cult, the elite anti-semitic Khazarian Trading families of Venice, Genoa and Naples grew increasingly wealthy in controlling trade, especially in the formation of guilds, or closed markets for manufacture, law and distribution.  
  Nowhere was the refinement and innovation of the guilds stronger than in the rise of the Genoese outpost of Florence by the turn of the 13th Century through the Medici family originally from Genoa. In Florence, they helped organize a system of guilds called the Arti (from which we get the word ‘art’ in terms of secret practices) of five (5) major Guilds called the arti mediane and seven (7) minor guilds called the arti minori. Next to the cloth and wool merchants Guild being the most powerful of all, came the Arte de Guidici e Notai or the “Guild of Judges and notaries”.  
  Yet this new breed of professional class of jurists was unlike anything the world had seen before. Instead of being professors, philosophers and experts of law first, they were merchants first and their product to sell was not simply law, but the commercialization of penalties- quite simply bonding, securities and bailment.  
  The place where these traders in commercializing law plied their trade was called a cautio or what we know as “court”, with cautio meaning in Latin literally “bonding, securitization and bailment (of vow/oaths/cases)”; The claim that the word “court” comes from cohort a clumsy and deliberate lie.  
  Yet, the Venetians upon seeing the money that could be made upon the “monetization of sin” through the cautio of the Guild of Judges and Notaries suddenly saw the benefit of strengthening their investment in the Roman Cult and by 1249/1250 issued the first “Jubilee” in the forgiveness (retirement) of all sins and debts and the commencement of the wholesale trade of indulgences- or insurance against “sin”.  
  Thus the Guild of Judges and Notaries continued to grow in prestige and influence through their cautio (courts) in plying their trade of the monetization of sin first and the dispensing of any resemblance of justice second. When the system was promoted into England, the Guilds became the Liveries and also thrived.  
  Fast forward to the direct descendents of the Guilds of Judges and Notaries of Florence, Venice, Genoa and Liveries of London being the Bar Associations and the Court remains the same model of commercialization of sin of the guilds- bearing no resemblance to the function of law for thousands of years prior to the 13th Century.  
     
     
     
     
     
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