Bernard's Inn became an academy for law-students in
the reign of Henry VI.

[21] Chaucer mentions the Temple thus:--

"A manciple there was of the Temple, Of which all catours might take
ensemple For to be wise in buying of vitaile; For whether he pay'd or
took by taile, Algate he wayted so in his ashate, That he was aye before
in good estate. Now is not that of God a full faire grace, That such a
leude man's wit shall pace The wisdome of an heape of learned men? Of
masters had he more than thrice ten, That were of law expert and
curious, Of which there was a dozen in that house, Worthy to been
stewards of rent and land Of any lord that is in England; To maken him
live by his proper good In honour debtless, but if he were wood; Or live
as scarcely as him list desire, And able to helpen all a shire, In any
case that might have fallen or hap, And yet the manciple set all her
capp."

[22] The 'De Laudibus' was written in Latin; but for the convenience of
readers not familiar with that classic tongue, the quotations from the
treatise are given from Robert Mulcaster's English version.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

LAWYERS AND GENTLEMEN.

Thus planted in the fourteenth century beyond the confines of the city,
and within easy access of Westminster Hall, the Inns of Court and
Chancery formed an university, which soon became almost as powerful and
famous as either Oxford or Cambridge. For generations they were spoken
of collectively as the law-university, and though they were voluntary
societies--in their nature akin to the club-houses of modern
London--they adopted common rules of discipline, and an uniform system
of instruction. Students flocked to them in abundance; and whereas the
students of Oxford and Cambridge were drawn from the plebeian ranks of
society, the scholars of the law-university were almost invariably the
sons of wealthy men and had usually sprung from gentle families. To be a
law-student was to be a stripling of quality. The law university enjoyed
the same patrician _prestige_ and _eclat_ that now belong to the more
aristocratic houses of the old universities.

Noblemen sent their sons to it in order that they might acquire the
style and learning and accomplishments of polite society. A proportion
of the students were encouraged to devote themselves to the study of the
law and to attend sedulously the sittings of Judges in Westminster Hall;
but the majority of well-descended boys who inhabited the Inns of