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The Roman jurists, who believed that the king was elected, credited the people with two distinct acts in the creation of a king—first, his election, and then the formal ratification of this election.[189] A parallel for this seemed to be furnished by Republican usage, where the lex was taken by magistrates already elected as a necessary preliminary to the exercise of the imperium. But at this period the magistrates were not elected by the comitia curiata, and the lex of this assembly is a mere survival, a reminiscence of the formal sovereignty which continued to be vested in the curiae. The lex curiata is much more comprehensible in origin if the king was first nominated independently of the people and then challenged their allegiance. It was probably little more than an acclamation on the first summons of the curiae by the king. The preceding king must have already made known to the people his choice of a successor, and the popular sentiment would have been already expressed; thus there was little chance of adverse shouts when the new king challenged the allegiance of his burgesses. If there was a chance of the challenge not being accepted, it might, as we saw, be withheld. But an exercise of the regal imperium which was not sanctioned by these two acts of Senate and people—the expressed will of the one and the declared allegiance of the other—was regarded by later authorities as unconstitutional.[190]