This chapter addresses the question of why prominent nobles were so interested in being church advocates by examining the legitimate financial benefits that came with the position. Using sources from the period 1050 to 1250, it argues that advocates typically received one-third of the fines when they held court on ecclesiastical estates, and also received food and lodging in return for fulfilling their role as judge. It also demonstrates that many advocates received separate income for their responsibilities in providing protection. While all of these payments were initially in kind, by the thirteenth century it was increasingly common for advocates to receive a single lump-sum money payment for fulfilling all their advocatial responsibilities, which is evidence of the increasing commodification of local positions of authority in this period. This chapter also investigates the numismatic evidence for church advocates as additional source material for the economic dimensions of the role.

This chapter returns to the theme of Chapter 7 and argues that church, town and territorial advocates during the period 1250 to 1500 were accused of committing many of the same types of violent acts as advocates of the preceding period, further challenging medieval historians’ arguments about the rise of government and bureaucracy during this period. It also calls into question scholars’ claims about the emergence of bourgeois society as marking a break with older, corrupt practices of justice and protection. It begins with a general survey of the evidence for advocatial violence between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries and then focuses on three case studies to highlight continuity with earlier centuries. One case study concerns the territorial advocate Peter of Hagenbach, who was tried and executed in 1474 for his abuses of power.