Ancient Legal Education in the Inns of Court.
Inne, to which the next two belong; Lincolne's Inne, which enjoyeth the last two saving one; and the Middle Temple which hath onely the last : each of the houses of Court consist of readers above twentie, of utter barristers above thrise 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 twentie, are equally distinguished into two higher and more eminent houses, called Serjeant's Inne : all these are not farre distant one from another, and al together doe make the most famous universitie for profession of law onely, or of any one humane science, that is in the world."
not design them to live in the practice of the profession. Passing over the long interval from Sir John Fortescue's time to that of Queen Elizabeth, we find Sir Edward Coke giving a fuller and very laudatory account of the inns : — "Now for the degrees of law. as there bee in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxforde divers de grees, as Generall Sophisters, Bachellors, Masters, Doctors, of whom bee chosen men for Eminent and judiciall places, both in the Church and Ecclesiasticall Courts; so in the Profession of the Lawe, there are Mootemen, (which are those that argue readers cases in houses of Chauncerie, both in Termes and gTaund vacations.) Of Mootemen, after eight years' study or thereabouts, are chosen utter-barristers; of utter-barristers, after they have beene of that degree twelve yeares at the least, are chosen benchers, or auncients, of which one 'that is of the puisne sort reades yearly in Summer vacation, and is called a single reader; and one of the auncients that have formerly read, reades in Lent vacation, and is called a double reader, and commonly it is between his first and second read ing about nine or tenne years. And out of these the King makes choyse of his attorney and sollicitor-generall, his attorney of the Court of wardes 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 pleaseth him, to be his Serjeants, which are called King's Ser jeants; of Serjeants are by the King also con stituted the honorable and reverend judges and sages of the law. . . . "For the young student which most com monly cometh from one of the Universities, for his entrance or beginning were first instituted and erected eight houses of Chauncerie, to learne there the elements of the law : that is to say, Clifforde's Inne, Lyon's Inne, Clement's Inne, Bar nard's Inne, Staple Inne, Furnivall's Inne, Davis' Inne, and New Inne : and each of these houses consists of fortie or thereabouts. For the readers, utter-barristers, mootemen, and inferiour students, are foure famous and renowned colleges or houses of Court, called the Inner Temple, to which the first three houses of chauncerie appertain; Graie's 10
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From other sources additional details may be learned which give a tolerably full picture of the manner of life and system of instruc tion in the inns. The year was divided into the term times, the learning or grand vacations, and the dead or mean vacation. There were two learning or grand vacations, — the one in Lent, the other at the beginning of August. Each continued for three weeks and three days. Two readers were appointed for the exposition to the members of their house of some statute during these vacations. In the Middle Temple the junior (who held his reading in the summer vacation) was a barrister just about to be received as a bencher. The other reader was a bencher of some standing, and his time of expound ing was in the Lent vacation. At these times the reader's exposition of the statute was canvassed and impugned by the elder part of the barristers of the house; and sometimes they were divided, some of them attacking and others defending it; and afterwards the reader replied in confirma tion of his opinion. It appears that the Ser jeants and judges were occasionally present at these exercises. They are said to have occupied three or four hours a day, though perhaps on alternate days; and a single statute formed the groundwork for the read ing of a whole vacation. The reader mean
