Part 8 (1/2)
Six monitors were chosen from among the scholars by the Deans, and of these two put bad marks against those who absented themselves from chapel or lecture, whilst four reported misbehaviour in hall or the use of any language other than Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, or Arabic.
Breach of the latter rule subjected the offender to the fine of a halfpenny, if a fellow, and a farthing if a scholar. Every week seven scholars were appointed to wait in hall, and an eighth to read the Bible aloud during dinner--not always as a penal and ignominious task.
The statutes, in a general way, permitted no dallying in hall after meals--a prohibition for which the following reasons are advanced: ”Abuse, slander, strife, scandal, wordiness, and other faults of the tongue rarely accompany an empty but often a well-filled stomach.” It was therefore ordained that after grace had been said and the loving-cup had gone round, the fellows and scholars should, without long delay, betake themselves to their studies. But the rule was not to be unduly pressed. ”If in honour of G.o.d or of His glorious Mother, or one of the saints, a fire is lighted in hall, for the comfort of those who dwell in the college ... then we allow them to remain for the sake of moderate recreation and amuse themselves with singing or repeating poetry or tales, or with other literary pastime.” Conversely, ”excessive noise, laughter, singing, dancing, and the beating of musical instruments in the bedrooms” were sternly denied.
ON PARADE
We have now embodied in this and the two preceding chapters practically all the information relating to University life that can be conveniently included in a small volume. It is unnecessary to state that, were more s.p.a.ce at our disposal, many other features might be incorporated--notably University costume, which was the subject of endless regulations. As the topic is so large and complex, we must reluctantly forgo any proper discussion of it, but it seems needful to subjoin a few remarks designed to throw light on the picture, ”New College on Parade,” which appears in ”Archaeologia,” vol. liii., part i.
In the middle, fronting the spectator, is the Warden--none other than the wors.h.i.+pful Thomas Chandler, whose name has been several times mentioned in these pages. He wears a ca.s.sock, and over that what may be a sleeved cope or tabard. Over that again is a tippet, a development of the almuce, or worn over it. No hood is visible. On his head is the _pileus_ with tuft or point. The common meaning of these terms, still less their emblematic significance, will not be universally understood.
A sleeved cope, then, was the distinctive garb of a canonist not in holy orders, and as Thomas Chandler became S.T.P. in 1450, the _capa manicata_ would be obviously out of place on his person. The tabard, generally a.s.sociated with heralds, was a sleeveless garment, worn with and probably over the gown, with which it was afterwards combined, and the sleeves of which, at that period, came through the armholes. This garment, a dress of dignity, might be worn by undergraduates, and was compulsory in the case of bachelors lecturing in the schools. The scholars of Queen's College, Oxford, are still officially styled Tabarders.
The tippet was an academic adaptation of the ecclesiastical almuce, and was not the same as the hood, although the almuce seems to have been in the first place nothing but an ordinary hood with a lining of fur to keep out the cold. The original meaning of ”typet” was the poke of the cowl, in which, the reader may happen to remember, Chaucer's Frere was in the habit of carrying his knives and pins. Academically, it was a distinct article of dress, lined with fur, and formed part of the insignia of the doctor or master.
The _pileus_ was the hat of honour, evolved from the ecclesiastical skull-cap, and was distinctive of the higher degrees, particularly of that of doctor. Indeed, it has been thought that this cla.s.s alone is designated by the term _pileati_ found in our old statutes. From the thirteenth century onwards _pilei_, and the overtopping tufts, were of various colours according to the faculties which it was intended to distinguish. It may be added that red, and even green, gowns were worn by the higher graduates, as appears from wills proved in the Chancellor's Court at Oxford.
Next to the Warden, on each side, are two figures in sleeveless copes, tippets and _pilei_, without hoods--doctors in theology or degrees. More in the background are other _pileati_, wearing both tippet and hood; and through the armholes of their outer garments show the tight sleeves of the ca.s.sock. These may be secular doctors, or they may be bachelors of divinity or masters of arts. Five on the extreme right have no _pileus_.
Following them are persons wearing hoods and tippets over what may be a tabard, to which are attached loose sleeves or flats, with the tight sleeves of the ca.s.sock appearing underneath. This is the most numerous cla.s.s represented in the picture, and seems to have comprised masters and bachelors of the faculties, with the exception, probably, of theology.
Facing the Warden are younger persons, attired similarly to the last, who may be bachelors of arts; and to the right and left of these are older individuals, severely tonsured, the majority of whom wear surplices. If Mr. Clark's conjecture be correct, they are the clerical members of the choir. Two of them have a scarf over a surplice or, as is more likely, a loose-sleeved ca.s.sock. Lowest in rank are the surpliced choristers wearing hoods, with, in some instances, a liripipe depending from them behind.
JUDICIAL
CHAPTER X
THE ORDER OF THE COIF
Between the Universities and the Judiciary of England in ancient times there existed a close link, which is to be found in the _serviens ad legem_ or Serjeant-at-Law. He was at once a graduate and a public official concerned with the administration of justice either as a recognized pleader or as a judge, for, whether in the higher or lower grade, he owed his credentials to the Crown.
We will consider the Serjeant-at-Law in the first place in his academic character, in which he might rank as a B.C.L. or as a Doctor Legum, though this is not quite what we intended by graduation. Law, like the other liberal professions, has always been regardful of outward and visible signs. This being so, we trust we have committed no very serious sin of plagiarism in borrowing as the heading of this chapter the t.i.tle of a well-known work by Serjeant Pulling, one of the last survivors of the order. At any rate, the plagiarism is open and avowed.
Though the most significant, the coif was not the only exterior note of the Serjeant, in contradistinction to the laymen; and, in order to show how he appeared, when in full professional attire, we think we cannot do better than quote from a fifteenth-century lawyer, one of our greatest authorities on such matters--Serjeant Fortescue. Writing about 1467, he says of his cla.s.s that they were ”clothed in a long robe, priest-like, with a furred cape about the shoulders; and therefrom a hood with two labels, such as Doctors use to wear in certain Universities, with the above-described quoyf.” The ”long robe”--the proverbial emblem of the legal profession--evidently corresponds with the ca.s.sock, the ”furred cape” to the tippet, and the ”labels” probably belonged, not, as Fortescue seems to intimate, to the hood, but were rather the strings of the coif, which were the attribute of Doctors of Laws. Here we have all the marks of graduation--that is, the process necessary for the lawful exercise of a learned calling--and graduation might be equally accomplished in the schools of Oxford and Cambridge and the Inns of Court.
As regards the remainder of his dress, the Serjeant-at-Law might pa.s.s for a Master of Arts or a Bachelor of Divinity. The distinguis.h.i.+ng feature is the coif, and, wherever it is discovered, it may be safely accepted as a criterion. Thus in Gosfield Church, Ess.e.x, there is an interesting bra.s.s of Thomas Rolf (d. 1440), who is represented as wearing a ca.s.sock, sleeved tabard, tippet, hood, and coif. The last-mentioned forms a circle round the head, and attached to it are two loops or lappets, which appear below the hood. Boutell has figured this bra.s.s, which he states to be that of a serjeant-at-law. The inscription, which has the words _legi professus_, already pointed to that conclusion, Rolf being devoted to law, as, under the circ.u.mstances, he might have been devoted to religion.
To anyone interested in the study of origins the symbolic value of the coif is very considerable. Like the _pileus_, it may be traced back to the ecclesiastical skull-cap, the corollary of tonsure. In the Dark Ages the lawyers were almost invariably clergy, in the modern sense of the term. By the thirteenth century the original skull-cap, while retaining its general shape, had developed into a head-dress of ampler proportions, and as such, might, and did, serve as a complete disguise of the clerical calling. For that reason it was forbidden to the clergy by Othobon's Const.i.tutions (1268), except as a night or travelling cap.
Like the Serjeant's coif of more recent date, it was white in colour; and, as an appanage of the legal profession, it was worn by judges and pleaders alike. The strings were used to tie the coif to the head, and were fastened under the chin. It has been plausibly suggested that the Black Cap which judges a.s.sume, when pa.s.sing sentence of death, was a device for concealing the coif, ecclesiastical justices being debarred from p.r.o.nouncing capital sentence; and in this connexion we may recall the const.i.tutional tradition, which requires the Bishops to withdraw when issues involving life or death come before the Parliamentary Courts.
We have spoken of _graduation_ in relation to law. As an explanation of the phrase, nothing could be more apt than a pa.s.sage in c.o.ke's ”Third Report,” which, although somewhat lengthy, deserves to be cited _in toto_:
”As there be in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford divers degrees, as general Sophisters, Bachelors, Masters, Doctors, of whom be chosen men for eminent and judicial places, both in the Church and Ecclesiastical Courts, so in the profession of the law there are Mootemen [i.e., students], which are those that argue readers' cases in houses of Chancery, both in terms and grand vacations. Of Mootemen, after eight years' study or thereabouts, are chosen Utter-barristers; of these are chosen Readers in inns of Chancery. Of Utter-barristers after they have been of that degree twelve years at least, are chosen Benchers or Ancients; of which one, that is of the puisne sort, reads yearly in summer vacation, and is called a Single Reader; and one of the Ancients that had formerly read reads in Lent vacation and is called a Double Reader, and commonly it is between his first and second reading about nine or ten years. And out of these the King makes choice of his Attorney and Solicitor General, his Attorney of the Court of Wards and Liveries, and Attorney of the Duchy; and of these Readers are Serjeants elected by the King, and are, by the King's writ, called _ad statum et gradum servientis ad legem_; and out of these the King electeth one, two, or three, as please him, to be Serjeants, which are called the King's Serjeants; of Serjeants are by the King also const.i.tuted the honourable and reverend Judges and sages of the law. For the young student, which most commonly cometh from one of the Universities, for his entrance or beginning were first inst.i.tuted and erected eight Houses of Chancery, to learn there the elements of the law, that is to say, Clifford's inn, Lyon's inn, Clement's inn, Staple's inn, Furnival's inn, Thavie's inn, and New inn; and each of these consists of forty or thereabouts; for the Readers, Utter-barristers, Mootemen, and inferior Students are four famous and renowned Colleges or Houses of Court, called the Inner Temple, to which the first three Houses of Chancery appertain; Gray's Inn, to which the next two belong; Lincoln's Inn, which enjoyeth the last two but one; and the Middle Temple, which hath only the last; each of the Houses of Court consists of Readers above twenty; of Utter-barristers above thrice so many; of young Gentlemen about the number of eight or nine score, who there spend their time in study of law and in commendable exercises fit for gentlemen; the Judges of the law and Serjeants, being commonly above the number of twenty, are equally distinguished into two higher and more eminent Houses, called Serjeant's Inn; all these are not far distant from one another, and altogether do make _the most famous university for profession of law only_, or of any one human science, that is in the world, and advanceth itself above all others _quantum inter viburna cupressus_. In which Houses of Court and Chancery the readings and other exercises of the law therein continually used are most excellent and behoofful for attaining to the knowledge of these laws; and of these things the taste shall suffice, for they would require, if they should be treated of, a treatise by itself.”
This pa.s.sage has been cited for the special purpose of exhibiting the close affinity between the Universities and the Law, for which, it will be generally conceded, it is admirably suited. It is necessary, however, that it should be pointed out that the learned c.o.ke was writing at and of a period when the system was fullblown. In the early period when ”hostels” for apprentices of the law began to be, no distinction obtained into Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery. These apprentices were, originally, just what the term implies, but their importance became greater until their representative is now the ordinary barrister-at-law.
In the year 1292--a date of some significance for us, not only in the immediate context, but with reference to other portions of the work--the King (Edward I.) promulgated an ordinance ”De Attornatis et Apprenticiis” in which he enjoined on John de Metingham and his fellows that they should, at their discretion, ”provide and ordain from every county certain attorneys and lawyers of the best and most apt for their learning and skill, who might do service to his court and that people, and those so chosen only, and no other, should follow his court and transact the affairs therein, the said King and his council deeming the number of seven score sufficient for that employment, but leaving it to the discretion of the judges to add to or diminish the number, as they should see fit” (Dugdale's Tr.).
Serjeant Pulling is somewhat perplexed concerning the precise position of the _apprenticii ad legem_ at the time of this edict. He, however, hazards the conjecture that ”by the apprentices were meant the advanced students, or learners of the law, who, as pupils or a.s.sistants to the Serjeants of the Coif, had obtained an insight into practice, and perhaps also there were included the more irregular followers of the law--the dilettante pract.i.tioners and Cleri Causidici, who continued to follow the law in the secular courts in spite of repeated prohibitions and objections.”
With the foundation and growth of the Inns of Court, the apprentices--the better sort at least--obtained full recognition as pract.i.tioners; and at the close of the fourteenth century their reputation had become so considerable that the great apprentices had formed themselves into a distinct order, in which they stood next to serjeants-at-law, the gradation being as follows:
(i) Serjeants-at-law.
(ii) n.o.biliores, or great apprentices.