Basoche

The Basoche was the guild of legal clerks of the Paris court system under the pre-revolutionary French monarchy. It was an ancient institution whose roots are unclear. The word itself derives from the Latin basilica, the kind of building in which the legal trade was practiced in the Middle Ages. Originally, the lawyers were also members of the guild, but they were established as separate guild in 1344.

It did have some odd institutions. The assembly of clerks was called the parliament and each year, they elected a king as their leader. In the 16th century, they had to rename their leader, henceforth calling him a chancellor, reputedly by order of Henry III. They also had the privilege of performing religious plays, which they abused. Its powers faded over the years and towards the end, it had little genuine authority. It was abolished in the French revolution by the general decree of February 13, 1791.^[1]

In modern French, basoche is a pejorative term for the legal trade as a whole.

Notes

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Thurston, H. T.; Moore, F., eds. (1905). "Basoche". New International Encyclopedia 2 (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. 

Further reading

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Basoche". Encyclopædia Britannica 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press 
•  Wood, James, ed. (1907). "Bazoche". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.