In The Profession of Ecclesiastical Lawyers, Richard Helmholz takes on the topic of the careers of those practicing in the church courts and gathers together research that has been many years in the making. The subject is not altogether untreated (see Baker, Brundage, Coquillette, Levack, Squibb), but Helmholz’ book adds two sources of underutilized information: the treatment of the profession in Roman and canon law, and information drawn from the archives of the English ecclesiastical courts, including not only court records but also ancillary literature from the working lives of these lawyers.

The book is divided into two sections. The first part, entitled “The Profession Described,” provides a thorough yet concise background for the later biographical examples, describing the laws regulating the legal profession, the education of ecclesiastical lawyers, the effects of the Protestant Reformation, and the changes that took place in the years leading up to the English Civil War. The second part, entitled “The Profession Illustrated,” features eighteen fascinating studies of individual legal professionals, ranging temporally from Roger of Worcester (d. 1179) to Henry Charles Coote (d. 1865). Helmholz brings together a vast number of sources, including previously published work and new archival research on the careers of these men, some of whom are familiar, others of whom are less well known. This expansive study draws connections with English common lawyers and with the vast tradition of the European ius commune, making the volume of substantial interest not only to ecclesiastical legal historians, but also to legal historians more broadly, as well as to those interested in the relationship between law and religion.

In “The Profession Described,” Helmholz provides a comprehensive yet approachable overview of the ecclesiastical legal profession in England, beginning with the emergence of trained advocates and proctors at the start of the twelfth century. He distinguishes among different types of legal professionals, describes the state of the profession in juristic literature, and then discusses educational requirements, ethical standards, and regulation of fees, as well as what we know of these regulations in practice (Chapter 1). Following this, he turns to the content of an ecclesiastical lawyer’s education: his sources of learning, his training in both Roman and canon law, and his attendance at court to learn procedure first-hand (Chapter 2). Helmholz then addresses how ecclesiastical lawyers reacted to the changes brought about by the Protestant Reformation, tracking the number of professionals employed in the courts during the period and concluding that the profession remained remarkably stable despite the changes taking place in England at the time. The final chapter examines levels of court activity in the years leading up to the English Civil War, the shifting relationship between the secular and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, and the involvement of lawyers in the exercise of ex officio jurisdiction (Chapter 4).

The second half of the volume is devoted to the careers of individual lawyers, complementing the first with concrete examples spanning nearly seven centuries. In each of the case studies, Helmholz covers the lawyer’s education and career, his involvement in the legal and political developments of his time, his writings, the authorities upon which he drew for his work, and his contributions to the field of ecclesiastical law. Each lawyer is treated in approximately six pages: for some, especially near the start of the period, this covers almost all we know of their careers, and for those closer to the end of the period, it covers the relevant highlights of much more well-known lives. All these elements are relayed with Helmholz’s clear prose and dry wit. Especially noteworthy is his thorough examination of the sources of authority upon which his lawyers depended for their writings, how each man’s work connected to preceding and contemporary juridical traditions, and the place that their work has held in posterity.

Helmholz’s impressive and extensive earlier work on ecclesiastical law comes into view in the easy familiarity with which he weaves together the history of the church courts in England through the eyes of those working in them. Where other historians see a decline in the ecclesiastical courts, he instead sees stability, grounded in continuing practice and in the case records. One has the impression that he is speaking about old friends, not just lawyers of the past, and the narrative is shored up with a substantial bibliography of pre-1800 texts and modern works. For those studying the history of the ecclesiastical courts, this book is invaluable, especially for its succinct introduction to the profession, comprehensive scholarship, and consistent focus on the profession in practice. The last of these topics is a particularly daunting field of study, but we may thank Helmholz for bringing the careers of individual ecclesiastical lawyers more clearly into the picture of the history of the church courts.