ABSTRACT
In any event, later in the seventeenth century the Parisian avocats proceeded to organize themselves around an old religious confraternity. Avocats ground their values, especially their belief in independence, in a history of their struggle with the state. They see their professional lives in an historical and political context and constantly recur to the crucial events of their past. Ideology accompanied organization. Chancellor D'Aguesseau's 1693 oration on the independence of the avocat sounded most of the notes that the bar delights to hear. Royal ordinances laid down requirements for prospective avocats, including for example the curriculum for the required law degree. In many respects, avocats continued to be faithful auxiliaries of the judges before whom they practiced. Starting in 1790, the avocats lost almost everything: their name, their robes, their library, their monopoly, their Order, and with it their powers to regulate and discipline. Avocats remember the nineteenth century as a largely successful attempt to restore their pre-Revolution traditions.
