A Serjeant of the Law

Lawyers and judges were part and parcel of medieval England. The gret English bard, Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400) writes, in Canterbury Tales, Prologue Number 9.

Note that the parvis was the name given to the front porch of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, where lawyers commonly gathered in their colourful attire to receive clients and give legal advice.

"A serjeant of the law, wary and wise
That often hadde been at the parvis
There was also, full rich of excellence
Discreet he was, and of greet reverence
He seemed swiche, his wordes were so wise
Justice he was full often in assise
By patent, and by plein commissiun
For his science, and for his high renoun
Of fees and robes hadde he many on."

This version is taken from Tyrwitt's version of Canterbury Tales (1822).

The first two lines of A Serjeant of the Law was quoted judicial, by Justice Campbell in Bennett v Hale 15 Q.B. 171.

REFERENCES:

• Duhaime, Lloyd, Legal Definition of Order of the Coif
• Pulling, A., The Order of the Coif (London: William Clowes and Sons Ltd., 1884), page 2-3.