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The Medieval Advocate's Profession

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2011

James A. Brundage
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Law and History Review , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , Fall 1988 , pp. 439 - 464
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Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 1988

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References

Notes

1. The widespread criticism of lawyers in medieval literature and theology was, in fact, a measure of their social importance, as Bouwsma, William J. pointed out in “Lawyers and Early Modern Culture,” American Historical Review 78 (1973): 315–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar. By this standard, lawyers were arguably the most prominent single group in the high middle ages, for no other group was so constantly and consistently attacked, as Chiappelli, Luigi noted long ago in “La polemica contro i legisti dei secoli XIV, XV, e XVI,” Archivio giuridico 26 (1881): 295Google Scholar. For more recent surveys of literary and theological criticism of medieval lawyers, see Yunck, John A., “The Venal Tongue: Lawyers and the Medieval Satirists,” American Bar Association Journal 46 (1960): 267–70Google Scholar; Baldwin, John W., “Critics of the Legal Profession: Peter the Chanter and His Circle,” in Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, ed. Kuttner, Stephan and Ryan, J. Joseph. Monumenta iuris canonici (cited hereafter as MIC), Subsidia, vol. 1 (Città del Vaticano, 1965), 249–59Google Scholar; and Brundage, James A., “The Ethics of the Legal Profession: Medieval Canonists and Their Clients” The Jurist 33 (1973): 237–48Google Scholar. It is no coincidence that every literary utopia pictures a world without lawyers as a better world; Pound, Roscoe, The Lawyer from Antiquity to Modern Times (St. Paul, 1953), xxvGoogle Scholar; Noonan, John T. Jr., “From Social Engineering to Creative Charity” in Knowledge and the Future of Man, ed. Ong, Walter J. (New York, 1968), 197–98Google Scholar.

2. Classen, Peter, “Die hohen Schulen und die Gesellschaft im 12. Jahrhundert,” in his Studium und Gesellschaft im Mittelalter, ed. Fried, Johannes, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Schriften, vol. 29 (Stuttgart, 1983), 1–26Google Scholar. The most obvious exception to this generalization was the emergence of the English common lawyers, whose professional training took place in the Inns of Court in London rather than in the universities. The exception was more apparent than real, however, for the Inns themselves became the functional equivalents of specialized universities; Classen, “Die königlichen Richter des Common Law: Rechtswissenschaft und Rechtsstudium ohne Universität,” in Studium und Gesellschaft, 197-237; as well as Rashdall, Hastings, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, 2d ed., 3 vols., ed. Powicke, F. M. and Emden, A. B. (Oxford, 1936) 1: 260Google Scholar; and Dawson, John P., The Oracles of the Law (Ann Arbor, 1968), 34–46Google Scholar.

3. Carr-Saunders, A. M. and Wilson, P. A., The Professions (Oxford, 1933; reprint, London, 1964), 352-65, 460–67Google Scholar; Pound, Roscoe, “What is a Profession? The Rise of the Legal Profession in Antiquity,” Notre Dame Lawyer 19 (1944): 203–28Google Scholar; Chroust, Anton-Hermann, “The Emergence of Professional Standards and the Rise of the Legal Profession,” Boston University Law Review 36 (1956): 587–98Google Scholar; Goode, William J., “Community within a Community: The Professions,” American Sociological Review 22 (1957): 195CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bullough, Vern L., The Development of Medicine as a Profession: The Contribution of the Medieval University to Modern Medicine (New York, 1966), 4-5, 110–11Google Scholar; Jackson, J. A., ed., Professions and Professionalization, Sociological Studies, vol. 3 (Cambridge, 1970), 4-5, 69–77Google Scholar; Johnson, Terence J., Professions and Power (London, 1972), 42, 58–59Google Scholar; Royal Commission on Legal Services, Final Report, 2 vols. (London, 1979; Command Papers 7648), 1: 28–30Google Scholar.

4. Carr-Saunders and Wilson, Professions, 298-304, 418-46; Goode, “Community within a Community,” 197; Johnson, Professions and Power, 54-57; Professions and Professionalization, 31-33, 59-67, 83-88; Larson, Magali Sarfatti, The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1977), 56–58Google Scholar; Rüschemeyer, Dietrich, Lawyers and Their Society: A Comparative Study of the Legal Profession in Germany and in the United States (Cambridge, Mass., 1973), 13–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5. Johnson, Professions and Power, 35, 43; Professions and Professionalization, 7, 27-30.

6. Carr-Saunders and Wilson, Professions, 394-404; Johnson, Professions and Power, 43-45, 51.

7. Goode, “Community within a Community,” 194-98; Heinz, John P. and Laumann, Edward O., Chicago Lawyers: The Social Structure of the Bar (New York, 1982), 206–8Google Scholar. Evans, Mariah D. and Laumann, Edward O., “Professional Commitment: Myth or Reality?” in Research in Social Stratification and Mobilidy, ed. Treiman, Donald J. and Robinson, Robert V. (Greenwich, Conn. 1983), 3–40Google Scholar, found relatively high levels of occupational change among members of some professions, such as engineers, but noted that physicians and lawyers, once established, rarely leave their profession.

8. This has apparently become less true in recent times among American lawyers, due to increasing specialization and fragmentation of the interests of members of the bar; see Heinz and Laumann, Chicago Lawyers, 18-20, 43-47, 101-109, 324-27.

9. Rashdall, , Universities, 1: 146–49Google Scholar; Smith, J. A. Clarence, Medieval Law Teachers and Writers, Civilian and Canonist, Publications of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, Monographs, vol. 9, (Ottawa, 1975), 3–14Google Scholar; Ullmann, Walter, Law and Politics in the Middle Ages (London, 1975), 83-89, 163–64Google Scholar; Berman, Harold J., Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), 159–64Google Scholar; Barton, John L., “The Study of Civil Law before 1380,” in History of the University of Oxford, ed. Aston, T. H. (Oxford, 1984-), 1: 519–22Google Scholar; Leonard E. Boyle, “Canon Law before 1380,” in ibid., 1: 531-33; Piergiovanni, Vito, “Il primo secolo della scuola canonistica di Bologna: Un ventennio di studi,” in Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, ed. Kuttner, Stephan and Pennington, Kenneth (Città del Vaticano, 1985; cited hereafter as Berkeley Proceedings), 241–56Google Scholar; Peter Classen, “Italienische Rechtsschulen ausserhalb Bolognas,” in ibid., 205-21, also reprinted in Studium und Gesellschaft, 29-45.

10. Kaser, Max, Das römische Zivilprozessrecht, Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft, Abt. 10, Teil 3, Bd. 4 (München, 1966), 455–56Google Scholar; Travers, Maurice, Les corporations d'avocats sous l'Empire romain envisagées au point de vue de l'administration judiciaire (Paris, 1891Google Scholar).

11. Riché, Pierre, Enseignement de droit en Gaule du VIe au XIe siècle, Ius romanum medii aevi (cited hereafter as IRMAe), vol. 1.5.B.bb (Milano, 1965)Google Scholar; Gibert, Rafael, Enseñanza del derecho in Hispania durante los siglos VI a XI, IRMAe, vol. 1.5.B.cc (Milano, 1967)Google Scholar; Chroust, “Emergence of Professional Standards,” 598.

12. Rüschemeyer, Lawyers and Their Society, 2-4, 7; Bouwsma, “Lawyers and Early Modern Culture,” 310.

13. The acid test of learning among medieval lawyers was usually taken to be some evidence that they were acquainted with Roman law. There is no evidence that Justinian's Corpus was known in the West until late in the eleventh century. The first Western citation of the Digest appeared in a judgment dated in 1076; see Ficker, Julius von, Forschungen zur Reichs-und Rechtsgeschichte Italiens, 4 vols. (Innsbruck, 1868-1874; reprint, Aalen, 1961), 4: 99–100Google Scholar; Kantorowicz, Hermann, Über die Entstehung der Digestenvulgata: Ergänzungen zu Mommsen (Weimar, 1910), 20Google Scholar; Fournier, Paul, “Un tournant d'histoire du droit, 1060-1140,” Revue historique de droit français et étranger, 3d ser., xli (1917), 129–80Google Scholar, reprinted in his Mélanges de droit canonique, ed. Kölzer, Theo, 2 vols. (Aalen, 1983), 2: 373–424Google Scholar. A certain Pepo was described as a doctor of law and appeared as an advocate in a few cases during the last quarter of the eleventh century, but little else is known about him; Irnerius, who both taught and practiced Roman law in the late eleventh century, is better documented; see Manaresi, C., ed., I placiti del'Regnum Italiae 437, 448, 3 vols. Fonti per la storia d'ltalia, vol. 92 (Roma, 1955-1960), 3: 333-35, 355–58Google Scholar; Kantorowicz, Hermann and Smalley, Beryl, “An English Theologian's View of Roman Law: Pepo, Irnerius, Ralph Niger,” Medieval and Renaissance Studies 1 (1941; appeared 1943): 237–51Google Scholar, reprinted in Kantorowicz's, Rechtshistorische Schriften, ed. Coing, Helmut and Immel, Gerhard, Freiburger Rechtsund Staatswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, vol. 30 (Karlsruhe, 1970), 231–44Google Scholar; Cencetti, Giorgio, “Studium fuit Bononie: note sulla storia dell'Università di Bologna nel primo mezzo secolo della sua esistenza,” Studi medievali 7 (1966): 795–96Google Scholar; Santini, Giovanni, “La contessa Matilde, lo ‘studium’ e Bologna ‘Città aperta’ dell'XI secolo,” in Studi Matildici: Atti e memorie del II Convegno di Studi Matildici, Biblioteca della Deputazione di Storia Patria per le antiche provincie modenesi, n.s., vol. 16 (Modena, 1971), 409–27Google Scholar; Fiorelli, Pietro, “Clarum Bononensium lumen,” in Per Francesco Calasso: Studi degli allievi (Roma, 1978), 413–59Google Scholar.

14. This was clearly true in England; Sir Pollock, Frederick and Maitland, Frederic William, The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, 2d ed. rev. by Milsom, S. F. C., 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1968), 1: 211–14Google Scholar; Sayles, G. O., “Introduction,” to Select Cases in the Court of King's Bench under Edward I, 3 vols., Selden Society Publications, vols. 55, 57, 58 (London, 1936-1939), 1: xci, civGoogle Scholar; Morris, Colin, The Discovery of the Individual, 1050-1200 (New York, 1973), 125Google Scholar. Much the same sort of situation obtained in the south of France, a region where one might have expected to find a somewhat earlier development of a professional bar, since Roman influence survived there very late; see Gouron, André, “Les étapes de la pénétration du droit romain au XIIe siècle dans l'ancienne Septimanie,” Annales du Midi 49 (1957); 113Google Scholar; and see below, notes 22-28.

15. Pollock, and Maitland, , History of English Law, 1: 214Google Scholar.

16. Bulgarus, , Excerpta legum, ed. Wahrmund, Ludwig, Quellen zur Geschichte des römisch-kanonischen Prozesses im Mittelalter (cited hereafter as QGRKP), vol. 4, pt. 1 (Innsbruck, 1925; reprint Aalen, 1962), 2–3Google Scholar; William of Drogheda, Summa aurea §33, ed. Wahrmund, , QGRKP, vol. 2, pt. 2 (Innsbruck, 1914; reprint Aalen, 1962), 36–37Google Scholar; Fédou, René, Les hommes de loi lyonnais à la fin du moyen âge: Etude sur les origines de la classe de robe, Annales de la Université de Lyon, 3d ser., vol. 37 (Paris, 1964), 149–50Google Scholar; Helmholz, Richard H., “Ethical Standards for Advocates and Proctors in Theory and Practice,” in Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, ed. Kuttner, Stephan, MIC, Subsidia, vol. 5 (Città del Vaticano, 1976): 284–85Google Scholar; Guenéê, Bernard, Tribunaux et gens de justice dans le bailliage de Senlis à la fin du moyen âge (vers 1380-vers 1550) (Strasbourg, 1963), 186, 216Google Scholar; Henriot, Eugène, Moeurs juridiques et judiciaires de l'ancienne Rome, 3 vols. (Paris, 1865), 3: 93–95Google Scholar; Pound, The Lawyer, 55; Martines, Lauro, Lawyers and Statecraft in Renaissance Florence (Princeton, 1968), 30CrossRefGoogle Scholar: Ritchie, Carson I. A., The Ecclesiastical Courts of York (Arbroath, 1956), 53, 61–62Google Scholar.

17. X 2.19.11; Bernard of Parma, Glossa ordinaria to X 2.19.11 v. duos viros; medieval canonical texts are cited throughout from Corpus iuris canonici, ed. Friedberg, Emil, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1879Google Scholar; reprint, Graz, 1959)—for the citation system, see “Notes for Contributors,” Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law (hereafter BMCL), 11 (1981): 137–39Google Scholar. The Glossa ordinaria will be cited from the edition of the Corpus in 4 vols. (Venice, 1605). See also Decisiones Rotae Romanae, no. 272 (Mainz, 1477); Hyde, J. K., Padua in the Age of Dante (New York, 1966), 154Google Scholar; Guillemain, Bernard, La cour pontificale d'Avignon, 1309-1376: étude d'une société (Paris, 1966), 563–64Google Scholar; Martines, Lawyers and Statecraft, 34-38; Cheney, C. R., Notaries Public in England in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (Oxford, 1972), 26–71Google Scholar. For the current canon law, see Codex iuris canonici auctoritate Ioannis Pauli PP. II promulgatus (Città del Vaticano, 1983), can. 482–84Google Scholar.

18. May, Georg, Die geistliche Gerichtsbarkeit des Erzbichsofs von Mainz (Leipzig, 1956), 154Google Scholar.

19. Richardson, H. G., “The Oxford Law School under John,” Law Quarterly Review 57 (1941): 333Google Scholar; Cheney, Notaries Public, 46-50, 76-78, 140-41; Martines, Lawyers and Statecraft, 35-36.

20. Johannes Teutonicus, Glos. ord. to D. 27 c. 1 v. tacuerit; X 1.38.1, 3, 4.

21. Guenée, Tribunaux, 205-6; Helmholz, Richard H., Marriage Litigation in Medieval England (Cambridge, 1974), 147–48Google Scholar.

22. Guenée, Tribunaux, 209-11.

23. Bulgarus, Excerpta legum, ed. Wahrmund, 2-3; William of Drogheda, Summa aurea 33, ed. Wahrmund, 36-37; de Rosate, Albericus, Vocabularius utriusque iuris longe castigatissimus (Paris, 1525), fol. 18rbGoogle Scholar; Gillet, P., “Avocat,” in Dictionnaire de droit canonique, ed. Naz, R., 7 vols. (Paris, 1935-1965; hereafter DDC), 1: 525Google Scholar.

24. Accursius, Glos. ord. to Cod. 1.4.15 v. togatorum and to 2.6.6 v. causidicus; Roman law texts are cited from the critical edition of the Corpus iuris civilis by Mommsen, , Krueger, , Schoell, , and Kroll, (Berlin, 1872-1895Google Scholar); I have also used the four-volume edition and English translation of the Digest, ed. Alan Watson (Philadelphia, 1985), in addition to the Mommsen, Krueger, et. al. text. The Glossa ordinaria is cited from the Lyon, 1574, edition in five volumes. See also Henriot, , Moeurs juridiques, 3: 97Google Scholar; Guenée, Tribunaux, 5, n. 22; Nörr, Knut Wolfgang, Zur Stellung des Richters im gelehrten Prozess der Frühzeit: Iudex secundum allegata non secundum conscientiam iudicat, Münchener Universitätsschriften, Reihe der juristischen Fakultät, Bd. 2 (München, 1967), 8, n. 4Google Scholar; Palmer, Robert C., “The Origins of the Legal Profession in England,” The Irish Jurist 11 (1976): 128Google Scholar.

25. “Le dit des mais,” in Nouveau recueil de contes, dits, fabliaux et autres pièces inédites des XIIIe, XIVe, et XVe siècles, ed. Jubinal, Achille, 2 vols. (Paris, 1839-1842), 1: 190Google Scholar; cf. “Les lamentations de Matheolus,” quoted by Yunck, “The Venal Tongue,” 260.

26. Chiapelli, Luigi, Vita e opere giuridiche di Cino da Pistoia con molti documenti inedite (Pistoia, 1881), 144Google Scholar.

27. Occultus Erfordensis, quoted by Genzmer, E., “Kleriker als Berufsjuristen im späten Mittelalter,” in Études d'histoire du droit canonique dédiées a Gabriel LeBras, 2 vols. (Paris, 1965), 2: 1235Google Scholar.

28. Henriot, , Moeurs juridiques, 3: 182Google Scholar.

29. Gesta regum anglorum libri quinque 4.314, ed. Stubbs, William, 2 vols., Rolls Series, no. 90 (London, 1887-1889), 2: 369Google Scholar. As early as ca. 1114, the anonymous author of an English legal text scathingly referred to the greedy and hateful practices of the lawyers; Leges Henrici primi, ed. and trans. Downer, L. J., 6.3a, (Oxford, 1972), 98Google Scholar.

30. Guenée, Tribunaux, 5.

31. Gualazzini, Ugo, La scuola giuridica reggiana nel medioevo (Milano, 1952), 15–16Google Scholar; Gouron, “Étapes de la pénétration,” 113.

32. Thus, for example, the Leges Henrici primi 10.3, ed. Downer, 108, style the king the “advocate” of the clergy, the poor, and the friendless: “Ex omnibus ordinatis et alienigenis et pauperibus et abiectis debet esse rex pro cognatione et aduocato, si penitus alium non habent.” For early uses of the term in case records see Placiti 6, 38, 76, 110, 112, 119, 152, 161, 172, 187, 231, 233, ed. Manaresi, 1: 15, 120-22, 124-77, 405-10, 414-18, 441-46, and 2: 37-43, 84-91, 122-26, 185-86, 351-56, 360-62.

33. See for example a case heard at Rome in 998 in which an abbot was granted a delay in a hearing so that he could fetch his advocate, who was skilled in Lombard law; Placiti, 236, ed. Manaresi, 2: 367-74. Where an individual is described as advocatus et notarius or iudex et advocatus it is reasonable to infer that he possessed some legal expertise. For notary-advocates see Placiti, 82 (877), 144 (945), 428 (1073), 436 (1076), ed. Manaresi, 1: 296-301, 551-57, 3: 310-14, 331-33. Judge-advocates appear in Placiti, 156 (967), 266 (1001), 384 (1050), ed. Manaresi, 2: 54-56, 475-79, 3: 187-89. Eleventh-century records of cases heard by Countess Matilda of Tuscany complain about the lengthy arguments of the advocates who appeared in them; the judges in a 1079 case were said to be worn down, ex nimia et prolixa atque infinila advocatione; Placiti, 453 (1079), 455 (1080), ed. Manaresi, 3: 366-69, 371-73. Such descriptions irresistibly bring to mind a style of advocacy as familiar in antiquity as in modern times.

34. Johannes Teutonicus, Glos. ord. to C. 3 q. 7 c. 1 v. procurator, Summa Parisiensis, ed. T. P. McLaughlin, to C. 3 q. 7 pr. and to C. 4 q. 3 c. 3 v. advocatum, (Toronto, 1952), 121, 129Google Scholar.

35. Fédou, Hommes de loi lyonnais, 149-50; Marchant, Ronald A., The Church under the Law: Justice, Administration, and Discipline in the diocese of York, 1560-1640 (Cambridge, 1969), 54Google Scholar; Donahue, Charles Jr., “Roman Canon Law in the Medieval English Church: Stubbs v. Maitland Re-examined after Seventy-five Years in the Light of Some Records from the Church Courts,” Michigan Law Review 72 (1974): 686, n. 203CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Helmholz, “Ethical Standards,” 284-85; Guenée, Tribunaux, 186, 197-98; May, Geistliche Gerichtsbarkeit, 274.

36. E.G., Henry Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln (1320-40), Statuta consistorii episcopalis Lincolniensis (1334) §§3-5, in Concilia magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, ed. Wilkins, David, 4 vols. (London, 1737; reprint, Bruxelles, 1964), ii, 572Google Scholar; Hackett, M. B., The Original Statutes of Cambridge University: The Text and its History (Cambridge, 1970), 323Google Scholar. But cf., Helmholz, Marriage Litigation, 150-51.

37. Boyle, Leonard E., “The Curriculum of the Faculty of Canon Law at Oxford in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century,” in Oxford Studies Presented to Daniel Callus (Oxford, 1964), 135–62Google Scholar; and “Canon Law before 1380,” in History of the University of Oxford, ed. Aston, , 1: 534–48Google Scholar; Gouron, André, “The Training of Southern French Lawyers during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries,” in Post Scripta: Essays in Honour of Gaines Post, Studia Gratiana, vol. 15 (Roma, 1972), 219–27Google Scholar, reprinted with unchanged pagination in Gouron's, La science du droit dans le Midi de la France au Moyen Age (London, 1984Google Scholar).

38. Mor, Carlo Guido, Storia dell'Università di Modena (Modena, 1952), 16Google Scholar; Meynial, Edouard, “Remarques sur la réaction populaire contre l'invasion du droit romain en France aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles,” Romanische Forschungen 23 (1907): 563Google Scholar.

39. Davidsohn, Robert, Storia di Firenze, trans. Miccoli, Giovanni, 4 vols. in 6 (Firenze, 1972-1973), 4: 249Google Scholar.

40. Martines, Lawyers and Statecraft, 14, 28-29.

41. Davidsohn, , Storia di Firenze, 4: 221Google Scholar; Martines, Lawyers and Statecraft, 41.

42. Davidsohn, , Storia di Firenze, 4: 225–26Google Scholar.

43. Fried, Johannes, Die Entstehung des Juristenstandes im 12. Jahrhundert: Zur sozialen Stellung und politischen Bedeutung gelehrter Juristen in Bologna und Modena, Forschungen zur neueren Privatrechtsgeschichte, vol. 21 (Köln, 1974), 44Google Scholar. Bologna established a commission to examine candidates who wished to practice as notaries as early as 1222. The notarial guild was apparently organized somewhat earlier, for lists of members survive from as early as 1219; by 1288, the notaries’ guild had a hall of its own. Statuti di Bologna dell'anno 1288, 2.14, ed. Gina Fasoli and Pietro Sella, 2 vols. Studi e testi, vol. 73, 85 (Città del Vaticano, 1938-39), 1: 87; fragments of the surviving lists of notaries are published in Statuti delle Società del popolo di Bologna, ed. Gaudenzi, Augusto, 2 vols. Fonti per la storia d'ltalia, vols. 3-4 (Roma, 1889-1896), 2: 437–69Google Scholar. Davidsohn, , Storia di Firenze, 4: 231Google Scholar.

44. Statutes of 1165, c. 37, in Statuti di Bologna dell'anno 1245 all'anno 1267, ed. Frati, Luigi, 3 vols., Monumenti istorici pertinenti alle provincie della Romagna, ser. 1, vol. 1-3 (Bologna, 1869-1877), 3: 618Google Scholar.

45. The period of study was set at five years by the 1327-1328 statutes, which agreed with the teaching of Azo on this point (below, n. 61); Fried, Entstehung des Juristenstandes, 212; Martines, Lawyers and Statecraft, 31-33, and see below, n. 28.

46. Hyde, Padua in the Age of Dante, 122.

47. Delachenal, Roland, Histoire des avocats au Parlement de Paris, 1300-1600 (Paris, 1885), 35–38Google Scholar; Pound, The Lawyer, 71-72; Dawson, John P., Oracles of the Law (Ann Arbor, 1968), 282–83Google Scholar.

48. Ordinance of Philip HI, 23 October 1274, in Ordonnances des roys de France de la troisième race, 23 vols. (Paris, 1723-1849; repr. Farnsborough, 1967-1968), 1: 300–301Google Scholar.

49. Beaumanoir, Philippe de, Coutumes de Beauvaisis 5.175, 178, ed. Salmon, A., 2 vols. (Paris, 1899-1900; reprint, 1970), 2: 89, 91Google Scholar.

50. Delachenal, Histoire des avocats, 23-25, 82-83; Dawson, Oracles, 282-83.

51. Squibb, G. D., Doctors' Commons: A History of the College of Advocates and Doctors of Law (Oxford, 1977), 1–7Google Scholar.

52. Squibb, Doctors' Commons, 18-21.

53. Ibid., 37-41.

54. Baker, J. H., An Introduction to English Legal History (London, 1971), 69–77Google Scholar, and “Counsellors and Barristers: An Historical Study,” Cambridge Law Journal 27 (1969): 205–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar; the latter is reprinted in The Legal Profession and the Common Law (London, 1986), 99–124Google Scholar. See also Simpson, A. W. B., “The Early Constitution of the Inns of Court,” Cambridge Law Journal 28 (1970): 241–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thorne, Samuel E., “The Early History of the Inns of Court, with Special Reference to Gray's Inn,” Graya 50 (1959): 79–97Google Scholar; Brand, Paul, “The Origins of the English Legal Profession,” Law and History Review 5 (1987): 31–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Courtroom and Schoolroom: The Education of Lawyers in England Prior to 1400,” Historical Research 60 (1987): 147–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Numerous other studies are listed by Bland, D. S., Bibliography of the Inns of Court and Chancery, Selden Society Publications, Supplementary Series, vol. 3 (London, 1965Google Scholar).

55. Palmer, “Origins of the Legal Profession,” 126-46.

56. Baker, “Counsellors and Barristers,” 205-6; Brand, “Origins of the English Legal Profession”; Palmer, “Origins of the Legal Profession,” 145-46.

57. Leges Henrici primi 57.8, ed. Downer, 178, for example, makes it plain that feudal overlords must furnish legal representation for those who held land from them and implies that lords may well have fulfilled this obligation in person. For pleaders who also appeared as champions see Palmer, “Origins of the Legal Profession,” 142-44.

58. Thus the Leges Henrici primi 4.6-4.8, ed. Downer, 82-84, offers pleaders advice that is so elementary it suggests that many of them had little or no training in their craft. Even though the Inns of Court date from the mid-thirteenth century, they were slow to furnish systematic instruction for law students. Thorne, “Early History of the Inns of Court,” 86-87, suggests that this did not begin to happen until early in the fifteenth century.

59. Standards of professional conduct for common lawyers were first prescribed by the Statute of Westminster I (1275) c. 29, Statutes of the Realm, 9 vols. in 10 (London, 1810-1828), 1: 34Google Scholar; Fleta 2.37, ed. and trans. Richardson, H. G. and Sayles, G. O., 4 vols., Selden Society Publications, vols. 72, 89, 99 (London, 1955-1983Google Scholar). An ordinance of 20 Edward I (1291) fixed the maximum number of attorneys recognized in the royal courts at 140, but it is not clear whether this number included pleaders as well as attorneys; Rotuli parliamentorum ut et petitiones et placita in Parliamento, 6 vols. (London, 1767-77), 1: 84. See also Palmer, “Origins of the Legal Profession,” 145; Kirk, Harry, Portrait of a Profession: A History of the Solicitor's Profession, 1100 to the Present Day (London, 1976), 6–7Google Scholar.

60. Carswell, R. D., “Origins of the Legal Profession in Scotland,” American Journal of Legal History 11 (1967): 44–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61. Azo, , Summa super Codicem 2.7 (Pavia, 1506; reprint, Torino, 1966), 29Google Scholar; this remained the rule for centuries—see Bartolus, Commentarium to Cod. 2.7.11, in his Opera, 12 vols. in 10 (Venezia, 1575-85).

62. See above, note 43.

63. Constitutiones Concilii quarti Lateranensis una cum commentariis glossatorum, c. 37, ed. García y García, Antonio, MIC, Corpus glossatorum, vol. 2 (Città del Vaticano, 1981), 79–80Google Scholar; von Heckel, Rudolf, “Das Aufkommen der ständigen Prokuratoren an der päpstlichen Kurie im 13. Jahrhundert,” in Miscellanea Francesco Ehrle, vol. 2: Per la Storia di Roma, Studi e testi, vol. 38 (Roma, 1924), 312–13Google Scholar. Johannes Teutonicus included Non nulli in 4 Comp. 1.2.5 and Ramón de Peñafort incorporated it into the Liber Extra at X 1.3.28.

64. Liber Augustalis 1.84, in Die Konstitutionen Friedrichs II. von Hohenstaufen für sein Königreich Sizilien, ed. and trans. Conrad, Hermann, Theo von der Lieck-Buyken. and Wolfgang Wagner (Köln, 1973), 126–28Google Scholar; for an English version see also The Liber Augustalis or Constitutions of Malfi Promulgated by the Emperor Frederick II for the Kingdom of Sicily in 1231, trans. Powell, James M. (Syracuse, 1971), 54–55Google Scholar.

65. Legatine Council of London (1237) c. 29, in Councils and Synods with other Documents Relating to the English Church, A.D. 1205-1313, ed. Powicke, F. M. and Cheney, C. R., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1964; cited hereafter as Powicke and Cheney), 1: 258–59Google Scholar. See also Paris, Matthew, Chronicon majora s.a. 1237, ed. Luard, H. R., 7 vols., Rolls Series, no. 57 (London, 1872-1883), 3: 439–40Google Scholar; Pollock, and Maitland, , History of English Law 1: 215Google Scholar.

66. Statutes of Salisbury II (1238-1244) c. 58, Worcester III (1240) c. 75, Durham II (1241-1249?) c. 50.6, Chichester I (1245-1252) c. 66, York I (1241-1255) c. 36, in Powicke and Cheney, 1: 314-15, 386, 435, 465, 493.

67. Legatine Council of London (1268) c. 26, in Powicke and Cheney, 2: 773.

68. Bologna, Statuti (1265) c. 38, ed. Frati, 3: 619; Statuti (1288) 5.153, ed. Fasoli and Sella, 1: 554.

69. 2 Council of Lyon (1274) c. 19, in Conciliorum oecumenicorum decreta, 2d ed., ed. Alberigo, G., Joannou, P., Leonardi, C., and Prodi, P. (Basel, 1962), 300–1Google Scholar. See also Statutes of Exeter II (1287) c. 34, in Powicke and Cheney, 2: 1030-31. For the text of the oath sworn by advocates and proctors in the papal Audientia litterarum contradictarum, see Tangl, Michael, ed. Die päpstlichen Kanzleiordnungen von 1200-1500 (Innsbruck, 1894; reprint, Aalen, 1959), 47, 121–22Google Scholar. Many other courts by this time required similar oaths; see e.g. Recueil général des anciennes lois françaises, ed. Isambert, François André et al. , 29 vols. in 4 (Paris, 1822-1863; reprint, Ridgewood, N.J., 1966), 2: 652-54, 690Google Scholar; Delachenal, Histoire des avocats, 19-20, 393-96; Hackett, M. B., The Original Statutes of Cambridge University (Cambridge, 1970), 323Google Scholar; Munimenta academica, or Documents Illustrative of Academical Life and Studies at Oxford, ed. Anstey, Henry, 2 vols, Rolls Series, no. 50 (London, 1868), 1: 76–77Google Scholar, 2: 380. On ethical standards for canonists, see also my study, “The Ethics of the Legal Profession: Medieval Canonists and Their Clients,” The Jurist 33 (1973): 247–58Google Scholar.

70. E.g. the admissions oath required in the Ely consistory court, §6, in Cambridge University Library, E. D. R. D/2/1, fol. 62v, as well as MS Add. 3468, fol 35v; Statutes of the Lincoln Consistory Court §8, in Wilkins, , Concilia, 2: 573Google Scholar. On the Ely oath, see my forthcoming study, “The Ecclesiastical Bar at Ely in the Fourteenth Century: The Oath of Admission.”

71. Cod. 2.6.5 (but cf. C. 3 q. 7 c. 2 and glos. ord. to v. partis); see also Cod. 2.6.6 pr. and §2. See further X 1.32.1 and glos. ord. to v. obstante, as well as VI 2.10.3 and glos. ord. to v. appellationis and v. in testem; Bartolus of Sassoferrato, Commentaria to Cod. 2.6.6 (Venice, 1581), fol. 62vGoogle Scholar; Tangl, Päpstlichen Kanzleiordnungen, 55; Rossi, Guido, Consilium sapientis iudiciale: Studi e ricerche per la storia del processo romanocanonico, Pubblicazione del Seminario Giuridico dell'Università di Bologna, vol. 18 (Milano, 1958), 86–87Google Scholar. The provision in 2 Lyon c. 19, COD pp. 300-301, that advocates or proctors who fail to observe the ethical rules become liable for damages also supports the argument that the lawyer's obligation to a client arose from a contractual relationship between them. On this problem, see my study, “The Profits of the Law: Legal Fees of University-Trained Advocates,” American Journal of Legal History 32 (1988): 7–8Google Scholar.

72. X 2.26.16, paraphrasing 1 Cor. 9:13-14; Autenrith, Johann Friedrich, De eo quod justum est circa salaria ac honoraria advocatorum §§8, 25 (Wittemberg, 1727) 9, 20–21Google Scholar; cf. Tacitus, Annales 11.7.

73. de Trano, Goffredus, Summa super titulos decretalium to X 1.37 De postulando §5, 8 (Lyon, 1519; reprint, Aalen, 1968), 127–28Google Scholar; Azo, , Summa to Cod. 2.6 (Torino, 1578; reprint, 1966)Google Scholar, followed by Bartolus, Commentaria to Cod. 2.6.6 v. quisquis, in his Opera, 10 vols. (Venice, 1575-85), vol. 7, fol. 62va. Accursius, however, noted without comment, an argument in support of payment in advance at Glos. ord. to Dig. 8.4.13 v. salarium. See also Autenrith, De eo quod justum est §26.

74. Aretinus, Gratia, Summa de iudiciario ordine 2.9, ed. Bergmann, Friedrich Christian, in Pillius, Tancredus, Gratia Libri de iudiciorum ordine (Göttingen, 1842; reprint, Aalen, 1965), 378–79Google Scholar.

75. Azo, Summa to Cod. 2.6; Glos. ord. to Cod. 2.6.5 v. immensa; Glos. ord. to Dig. 2.14.53 v. datum; C. 3 q. 7 c. 7, paraphrasing Cod. 2.6.5.

76. Bresslau, Harry, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre für Deutschland und Italien, 3d ed., 3 vols. (Berlin, 1958), 1: 575–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dilcher, Hermann, “Juristisches Berufsethos nach dem sizilischen Gesetzbuch Friedrichs II. von Hohenstaufen,” in Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte: Helmut Coing zum 28. Februar 1972 von seinen Schülern und Mitarteitern, ed. Wilhelm, Walter (Frankfurt a/M, 1972), 113Google Scholar.

77. Second Council of Lyon (1274) c. 19, in Conciliorum oecumenicorum decreta, 2d ed. (Basel, 1962), 300–1Google Scholar; Tangl, Michael, Die päpstlichen Kanzleiordnungen von 1200-1500 (Innsbruck, 1894; reprint, Aalen, 1959)Google Scholar; Dilcher, “Juristisches Berufsethos,” 113. On fees for legal services more generally, see also Brundage “Profits of the Law.”

78. Joannes Andreae, Glos. ord. to VI° 1.19.5 v. ad negotia.

79. He cites in support of this position Ulpian in Dig. 3.1.1.3 and in Gratian C. 3 q. 7 §2. Joannes was no slavish copier of ancient authorities, however, and it seems a reasonable inference that had he deemed seventeen a wholly unlikely or impossible minimum age, he would have said so, despite the contrary statements of earlier writers. His statement is also consistent with other evidence. Baldus degli Ubaldi, who was a child prodigy, held a repetitio at age fifteen and Pietro di Ancharano set seventeen as the minimum age for receiving the doctorate; see von Savigny, Friedrich Carl, Geschichte des römischen Rechts im Mittelalter, 4th ed., 7 vols. (Heidelberg, 1834-1850; reprint, Bad Homburg, 1961), 6: 213Google Scholar; Rashdall, , Universities 1: 125Google Scholar, n. 1. These were unusual cases, however; in general, university students in the middle ages seem not to have been much younger than they are today; J. I. Catto, “Citizens, Scholars, and Masters,” in History of the University of Oxford, ed. Aston, 170.

80. Bartolus, Comm. to Cod. 2.7.6 v. in eodem dumtaxat loco.

81. Bartolus, Comm. to Cod. 2.7.7 v. noverint.

82. Martines, Lawyers and Statecraft, 27.

83. Tangl, Päpstlichen Kanzleiordnungen, 124. The rule was not exactly new; a century earlier in the decretal Si culpa Pope Gregory IX explicitly provided for remedies against negligence by professional men; see X 5.36.9.

84. Ibid., 128.

85. William of Drogheda, Summa aurea 47, ed. Wahrmund, 47-48; Gescher, F., “Das älteste kölnische Offizialatsstatut (1306-1331),” Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, kanonistische Abteilung 14 (1925): 483Google Scholar; Rossi, Consilium sapientis, 255-59. Negligent attorneys in English courts could be committed to prison for losing their clients' cases; Liber custumarum 8 Edw. I, ed. Riley, Henry Thomas in Munimenta Gildhallae Londinensis, 3 vols, Rolls Series, no. 12 (London, 1859-1862), 282Google Scholar.

86. Bartolus, Comm. to Cod. 2.7.1 and 2.9.1; von Wiener-Neustadt, Raymundus, Das Summa legum brevis, levis, et utilis des sogenannten Doctor Raymundus von Wiener-Neustadt, 3.37, ed. Gál, Alexander (Weimar, 1926), 594–96Google Scholar; LeBras, Gabriel, “Velut splendor firmamenti: Le docteur dans le droit de l'église médiévale,” in Mélanges offerts à Étienne Gilson (Toronto and Paris, 1959), 387–88Google Scholar; Guillemain, Cour pontificale d'Avignon, 569.

87. de Arezzo, Bonaguida, Summa introductoha super officio advocationis in foro ecclesiae 4.4, in Anecdota quae processum civilem spectant, ed. Wunderlich, A. (Göttingen, 1841), 325–26Google Scholar; Dig. 9.2.8; Bartolus, Comm. to Cod. 2.9.1; Delachenal, Histoire des avocats, 213-15; Pollock, and Maitland, , History of English Law, 1: 212Google Scholar. The situation of a proctor was quite different, since a proctor, like an English attorney, was dominus litis and his statements carried the same force and value as statements by the client himself; Inst. 4.11.4-5; Papiensis, Bernardus, Summa decretalium 1.28.7, ed. Laspeyres, E. A. T. (Regensburg, 1960; reprint, Graz, 1956), 24Google Scholar; Teutonicus, Johannes, Apparatus glossarum in Compilationem tertiam 1.22.1 v. litteras reuocatorias, ed. Pennington, Kenneth, MIC, Corpus glossatorum, vol. 3 (Città del Vaticano, 1981), 143–44Google Scholar; de Trani, Goffredus, Summa super titulis decretalium 1.38.2, 18 (Lyon, 1519; reprint, Aalen, 1968), fol. 64ra, 66vbGoogle Scholar; Hostiensis, , Summa aurea, lib. 1, tit. De procuratoribus, §14 (Lyon, 1547; reprint, Aalen, 1962), fol. 64vb–65raGoogle Scholar; Kirk, Harry, Portrait of a Profession: A History of the Solicitor's Profession, 1100 to the Present Day (London, 1976), 4Google Scholar; Pollock, and Maitland, , History of English Law, 1: 212–13Google Scholar.

88. Bartolus, Comm. to Cod. 2.6.8. On the other hand, the advocate who became convinced that his client's case was without merit was obliged to resign from the case at once and to explain his reasons to the judge, a course of action that modern lawyers would consider altogether unethical.

89. Tangl, Päpstlichen Kanzleiordnungen, 121.

90. LeCoq, Jean (Joannes Galli), Questiones 359, ed. Boulet, Marguerite, Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome, fasc. 156 (Paris, 1945), 444–46Google Scholar; Recueil des lettres des officialités de Marseille et d'Aix (XIVe-XVe s.): Contribution à l'histoire des officialités au moyen-âge, ed. Aubenas, Roger, 2 vols. (Paris, 1937-1938), 2: 137–38Google Scholar; Helmholz, “Ethical Standards,” 298-99.

91. Other explanations are certainly possible. It is conceivable, but not likely, that records of disciplinary proceedings were not kept routinely, or that records of these actions perished in greater numbers than those of other kinds of proceedings. Alternatively it is possible, and a shade more likely, that most infractions of professional standards were dealt with informally and that only exceptional or aggravated cases were dealt with by formal process. It is also possible, of course, that unethical advocates were as a rule so stealthy and so clever that they escaped detection either by their clients or their colleagues.

92. E.g. Bracton 's Note Book: A Collection of Cases Decided in the King's Courts during the Reign of King Henry the Third, Annotated by a Lawyer of That Time, Seeimgly by Henry of Bratton, ed. Maitland, F. W., 2 vols. (London, 1887), 2: 508Google Scholar; Select Cases in the Court of King's Bench under Edward I, ed. Sayles, G. O., 3 vols., Selden Society Publications, vols. 55, 57, 58 (London, 1936-1939), 1:67, 80-81; 2: 33-34, 40–41Google Scholar; Select Bills in Eyre, A.D. 1292-1333, 6, 79, 88, ed. Bolland, William Craddock, Selden Society Publications, vol. 30 (London, 1914), 3-4, 52-53, 59Google Scholar; Les Reports des tres Honorable Edw. Seigneur Littleton, Baron de Mounslow, Trinity Term 3 Car. I (Fawne's Case) and Michaelmas Term 3 Car. I, (London, 1683), 46, 54.

93. Tangl, Päpstlichen Kanzleiordnungen, 364-65.

94. Legatine Councils of London (1237) c. 29 and (1268) c. 26, in Powicke and Cheney, 1:258 and 2:773.

95. A third kind of argument to support the thesis that sharp practice was common in medieval courts could be made from analogies with the results of modern survey research on lawyers’ ethic. Numerous studies in the United States, England, and elsewhere have produced findings that are strikingly similar to the complaints about medieval ecclesiastical advocates and proctors, and also about the shortcomings of the disciplinary system; see, e.g., Carlin, Jerome E., Lawyers' Ethics: A Survey of the New York City Bar (New York, 1966), 160–61Google Scholar; Heinz and Laumann, Chicago Lawyers, 362-64; American Bar Association, Problems and Recommendations in Disciplinary Enforcement (Chicago, 1970), 1–9Google Scholar; F. Raymond Marks and Darlene Cathcart, “Discipline within the Legal Profession: Is It Self-Regulation?” University of Illinois Law Forum, vol. (1974): 193-236; Rueschemeyer, Lawyers and Their Society, 59-62, 126, 144; Quintin Johnstone, and Hopson, Dan Jr., Lawyers and Their Work: An Analysis of the Legal Profession in the United States and England (Indianapolis, 1976), 42, 72-73, 481–85Google Scholar. Intriguing and suggestive as the similarities are, however, the argument from analogy seems inherently weak, since it disregards the manifold differences between the medieval ecclesiastical bar and its modern counterparts.

96. Meynial, Edouard, “Remarques sur la réaction populaire contre l'invasion du droit romain en France au XIIe et XIIIe siècles,” Romanische Forschungen 23 (1907): 559–60Google Scholar; Manitius, Max, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 3 vols., Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft, Abt. 9, Teil 2, Bd. 3, (München, 1931), 3:912, 930Google Scholar; Holtzmann, Walther, “Propter Sion non tacebo: Zur Erklärung von Carmina Burana 41,” Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 10 (1953): 170–71Google Scholar; Kuttner, Stephan, Dat Galienus opes et sanctio Justiniana,” in Linguistic and Literary Studies in Honor of Helmut A. Hatzfeld, ed. Crisavulli, A. S. (Washington, 1964), 237Google Scholar; Ourliac, Paul, “Troubadours et juristes,” Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 8 (1965): 159-77 at 174CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Baldwin, “Critics of the Legal Profession,” 249-59.

97. Rüschemeyer, Lawyers and Their Society, 10-ll;Pound, The Lawyer, xxiv; Robson, Robert, The Attorney in Eighteenth-Century England, Cambridge Studies in Legal History (Cambridge, 1959), 136Google Scholar; DuCann, Richard, The Art of the Advocate (Harmondsworth, 1964), 18Google Scholar; Perelman, Charles, “What the Philosopher May Learn from the Study of Law,” Natural Law Forum 11 (1966): 1–2Google Scholar; Sbriccoli, Mario, L'interpretazione dello statuto: contribulo allo studio delta funzione dei giuristi nell'età communale (Milano, 1969), 71Google Scholar.

98. This insight was suggested by Gabriel, Canon Astrik L. in a paper entitled “The Origin of the Faculty of Canon Law (Facultas decretorum) at the University of Paris” (Presented at the Sixth Conference on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, 18 May 1971Google Scholar).

99. The same priorities have often been noted in recent times. In 1970, for example, the American Bar Association's Special Committee on Evaluation of Disciplinary Enforcement reported that, “With few exceptions, the prevailing attitude of lawyers toward disciplinary enforcement ranges from apathy to outright hostility. Disciplinary action is practically nonexistent in many jurisdictions; practices and procedures are antiquated; many disciplinary agencies have little power to take effective steps against malefactors.” The committee characterized the situation as “scandalous” and warned that “public dissatisfaction with the bar and the courts is much more intense than is generally believed within the profession.” See Problems and Recommendations in Disciplinary Enforcement, 1-2. A select panel of elite lawyers meeting at the Seven Springs Conference in 1976 was even more critical and found serious flaws in the ABA's own Code of Professional Responsibility; Hazard, Geoffrey C. Jr., Ethics in the Practice of Law (New Haven, 1978), 7-8, 37–38Google Scholar.