ASOGUE and
BAZOUGES; from the Lat. _basilica_, in the sense of law courts, a French
gild of clerks, from among whom legal representatives (_procureurs_) were
recruited. This gild was very ancient, even older than the gild of the
_procureurs_, with which it was often at variance. It dated, no doubt, from
the time when the profession of _procureur_ (procurator, advocate or legal
representative) was still free in the sense that persons rendering that
service to others when so permitted by the law were not yet public and
ministerial officers. For this purpose there was established near each
important juridical centre a group of clerks, that is to say, of men
skilled in law (or reputed to be so), who at first would probably fill
indifferently the roles of representative or advocate. Such was the origin
of the Basoche of the parlement of Paris; which naturally formed itself
into a gild, like other professions and trades in the middle ages. But this
organization eventually became disintegrated, dividing up into more
specialized bodies: that of the advocates, whose history then begins; and
that of legal representatives, whose profession was regularized in 1344,
and speedily became a saleable charge. The remnant of the original clerks
constituted the new Basoche, which thenceforward consisted only of those
who worked as clerks for the procureurs, the richer ones among them
aspiring themselves to attain the position of procureur. They all, however,
retained some traces of their original conditions. "They are admitted,"
writes an 18th-century author, "to plead before M. le lieutenant civil _sur
les referes_[1] and before M. le juge auditeur; so that the procureurs of
these days are but the former clerks of the Basoche, admitted to officiate
in important cases in preference to other clerks and to their exclusion."
From its ancient past the Basoche had also preserved certain picturesque
forms and names. It was called the "kingdom of the _Basoche_," and for a
long time its chief, elected each year in general assembly, bore the title
of "king." This he had to give up towards the end of the 16th century, by
order, it is said, of Henry III., and was thenceforth called the
"chancellor." The Basoche had besides its _maitres des requetes_, a grand
court-crier, a referendary, an advocate-general, a _procureur-general_, a
chaplain, &c. In early days, and until the first half of the 16th century,
it was organized in companies in a military manne