[Sidenote: _German law in the universities._]
[58] Siegel, _Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte_, ed. 3, p. 152: ‘Den ersten und zugleich entscheidenden Schritt in dieser Richtung that Georg Beyer, welcher… zunächst durch einen Zufall veranlasst wurde, an der Wittenberger Universität, wohin er als Pandektist berufen worden war, 1707 eine Vorlesung über das _ius germanicum_ anzukündigen und zu halten.’
[59] Thayer, _The Teaching of English Law at Universities_ in _Harvard Law Review_, vol. IX., p. 171: ‘Blackstone’s example was immediately followed here.… In 1779 … a chair of law was founded in Virginia at William and Mary College … and in the same year Isaac Royall of Massachusetts, then a resident in London, made his will, giving property to Harvard College for establishing there that professorship of law which still bears his name.’ The Royall professorship was actually founded in 1815 (_Officers and Graduates of Harvard_, 1900, p. 24). At Cambridge (England) the Downing professorship was founded in 1800.
[60] See _Records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn_, 1896 ff.; _Calendar of the Records of the Inner Temple_, 1896. The records of Gray’s Inn are, so I understand, to be published. See also Philip A. Smith, _History of Education for the English Bar_, 1860; Joseph Walton, _Early History of Legal Studies in England_, 1900, read at a meeting of the American Bar Association in 1899. In foreign countries there were gilds or fraternities of lawyers. Thus in Paris the _avocats_ and _procureurs_ about the middle of the fourteenth century formed a fraternity of St Nicholas: ‘dont le chef porte le bâton ou bannière (de là le nom de bâtonnier)’: Brissaud, _Histoire du droit français_, p. 898. But, though a certain care for the education of apprentices was a natural function of the medieval craft-gild, I cannot find that elsewhere than in England fraternities of legal practitioners took upon themselves to educate students and to give what in effect were degrees, and degrees which admitted to practice in the courts. R. Delachenal, _Histoire des avocats au parlement de Paris_ (Paris, 1885), says that, though not proved, it is probable that already in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the _avocat_ had to be either _licencié en lois_ or _licencié en décret_: in other words, a legal degree given by an university was necessary for the intending practitioner. As regards the England of the same age two interesting questions might be asked. Was there any considerable number of doctors or bachelors of law who were not clergymen? Had the English judge or the English barrister usually been at an university? I am inclined to think that a negative answer should be given to the first question and perhaps to the second also. Apparently Littleton (to take one example) is not claimed by Oxford or Cambridge.