the viscount and the court; and that they will, to the best of their knowledge, give good and true advice to all to whom they shall be assigned as counsel, or who shall require their services; and that they will keep secret the secrets of the court and of those for whom they act as counsel," and they were to have a fee (selaire) in proportion to the assistance which they rendered, — selonc les convenances que il font à la gent. CH. VII.] NOBLESSE DE LA ROBE. 225 CHAPTER VII. THE NOBLESSE DE LA ROBE. Auparavant l'estat d'avocat estoit la pepiniere des dignitez, et le chemin de parvenir aux offices de conseillers, advocats du Roy, presidens, LOISEL, Dialogue des Advocats. et autres. No where has the profession of the law achieved for itself a prouder position than in France in former times. Beside her mailed chivalry stood an order of men known as the noblesse de la robe, whose only patent of nobility was admission on the roll of advocates, and from whose ranks were taken the magistrates who, as members of the parliament of Paris, represented the feudal court and council of the ancient kings. Two individuals of that order attained each a rare distinction; the one Ives de Kaermartin, who lived in the reign of Philip the Fair, being canonized as a saint1: the other, Gui Foucault, after gaining celebrity as an advocate, was advanced to the triple crown as Pope Clement IV,2 Illustrious as are the names of many who have adorned the judgment-seat in England, none stand higher than those of l'Hopital, le Tellier, and D'Aguesseau, each of whom held the office of Chancellor of France, and was the ornament of the century in which he lived; and of those who did not rise to such lofty pre-eminence in their profession, many were distinguished for their pro'Loisel, Dialogue des Advocats (1602). 2 Clemens quartus fuit famosus advocatus in Franciâ. . . . in curiâ regiâ causas integerrime agens," — Platin. in Vitâ. found learning, their varied accomplishments, and their powerful eloquence. In times of tyranny and licentiousness, under the despotic sway of Louis XI., Francis I., and Louis XIV., and amidst the disgraceful vices of the regency of the Duke of Orleans, it is refreshing to see with what an even hand justice was generally administered in the courts, and with what boldness and fidelity the advocates of France discharged their duties. From the earliest times Gaul has been famous as a nursery of lawyers, and Juvenal tells us that to her we are under obligations for instruction in eloquence.1 Gallia causidicos docuit facunda Britannos. Schools for the instruction of students in the art of rhetoric were established, and attained considerable eminence in various parts of France. We shall have occasion to notice, in the present chapter, with what care royal ordinances were framed to regulate the duties and preserve the privileges of the order of advocates; and they approved themselves well worthy of the support and countenance of the Crown; for, on many occasions, as, for instance, in the struggle to establish the validity of the Salic law in 1317, they rendered it most important services; and to them the Gallican church owed its successful resist It is amusing to see the patriotic zeal with which Sir Edward Coke repudiates this notion. "Not that the Frenchmen did teach the lawyers of England to be eloquent (which Cæsar, a most certain author, denieth), but that a colony of Grecians residing in France, as Strabo saith, Gallia was said to teach the professors of the laws of England, being written in the Greek tongue, eloquence."- Pref. to Reports, Pt. 3. It was a favourite theory with Coke that our common law was derived from the Greeks; or "tasted of a Greek beginning." According to him, Albion is properly Olbion, "the happy island," and Britain, Bpéras Tavía, Pictorum regio. A collection of his Etymologies would amuse a philologer of the present day. CH. VII.] PRETENSIONS OF THE PAPAL SEE. 227 ance to the arrogant pretensions and usurpations of the Papal See. It is well known how, commencing with Gregory VII. the proud and politic Hildebrand, the Popes gradually asserted, as God's vicegerents upon earth, their right to collation and investiture in the case of all spiritual dignities and benefices throughout Christendom. At the same time they claimed for the revenues of the church exemption from taxes, and denied the authority of the secular arm over the clergy, reserving to themselves and their own officers exclusive jurisdiction wherever ecclesiastical causes or persons were concerned. This doctrine rendered the law impotent against crimes, no matter how atrocious, when committed by a priest, and the most monstrous abuses were the consequence. In England, the prevalence of these led to the Constitutions of Clarendon in 1164, which the firmness of Henry II. forced upon the church, and thus laid the foundation of the mortal enmity which existed between that monarch and Thomas à Becket. The object of these Constitutions was to make the clergy amenable to the law, by providing that clerks accused of any crime should be tried in the King's courts; and that all suits and actions, concerning advowsons and presentations, should be determined according to the common law. They further enacted that the revenues of Episcopal sees should, during vacancies, belong to the Crown, and that every bishop elect should do homage to the Crown for his temporalities. But the pretensions of the popes went much farther than a claim to have cognizance in matters of a spiritual nature. Taking as their authority the text of Scripture "Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" they assumed a right to interfere in the temporal affairs of kingdoms to an extent which is scarcely credible. In the bull of excommunication against Henry IV., emperor of Germany, which Gregory VII. addressed to the prelates throughout Europe, he said, "Most holy fathers and princes, let the whole world understand and know that if ye have power on earth to bind and to loose, ye have power also on earth to take away from, or grant to any one, according to his deserts, empires, kingdoms, principalities, dukedoms, marquisates, earldoms, and in short the possessions of all men." These extravagant claims of the Holy See terrified the laity, who, however, in that unlettered age, hardly knew how to defeat pretensions that were founded on the misapplication of Scripture, and urged with all the perverse ingenuity of canonists and casuists. At the time when they were asserted most confidently, the throne of France was occupied by Saint Louis, whose life shines like a star in the midst of a dark and vicious age. But the very excellence of his character constituted in this instance the danger. He was, as his name implies, eminently devout, and therefore trembled at the thought of opposition to the Roman Pontiff. But he was at the same time unwilling to surrender the independence of his crown, and the liberties of his kingdom, to a foreign potentate; and he anxiously looked round for assistance. The great feudatories of France, with their armed retainers, were here powerless, for they could not contend in controversy with Italian clerks, and the question was to be decided by a war not of the sword, but of argument and opinion. The clergy, as such, did not venture to come into conflict with their spiritual Head; nor did they care to contradict pretensions, which, though in some respects |