In fact it was the impossibility
of finding men who could remain judicial in their attitude when the
thought of remuneration moved them to advocate the cause of one of the
litigants, that put the Scribes of those days in an indefensible
position and led to the attacks upon them that we find in the New
Testament.
And so it was in Rome. There the progenitor of the lawyer was first the
priest, the _Pontifex_, mingling judicial and advisory functions, and
then the _patronus_ or the orator, a man of wealth and high standing in
the community, who had gathered about him freed men and Plebeians as his
supporters. The latter were known as his _clientes_, from which term our
word is derived. When one of his clients became involved in a lawsuit,
the _patronus_ appeared to advise the judge--a magistrate acting only as
vindicator of general justice and often not learned in the principles of
law--and was not supposed to receive any compensation. Less than the
_patronus_, but exercising similar functions, was the _advocatus_--who,
though perhaps not so learned in the law, nor so formidable as a person,
was able to assist the _patronus_ before the tribunal on behalf of
others.
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