Alfenus Varus and the Faculty of Advocates: Roman Visions and the Manners that were Fit for Admission to the Bar in the Eighteenth Century
The Bar was a socially exclusive institution in most countries, even though it was in theory an open one. This chapter focuses on two curious episodes towards the end of the eighteenth century, when the Faculty unsuccessfully attempted to exclude two men — John Wright and Robert Forsyth — from membership. The debates among the Faculty arising from these episodes show the deployment of the language of manners, sentiment, and politeness, as well as argument about the traditional Roman models of what it was to be an advocate. To some extent, we can view these debates as helping redefine not only the advocates’ perception of themselves, whereby they moved away from identification with the Roman jurists, but also the role of Roman law in the training of the Bar. At the same time, the social composition of the Faculty was changing.