Self-study
P1
By the mid-fourteenth century, professional associations of canon lawyers (legal advocates in Christian ecclesiastical courts, which dealt with cases involving marriage, inheritance, and other issues) had appeared in most of Western Europe, and a body of professional standards had been defined for them. ███
Intro topic ·
Professional associations of canon lawyers in the mid-14th century
These are lawyers in Christian religious courts. They had professional standards and were common in Western Europe.
Puzzling phenomenon ·
The associations didn't have big role in enforcing professional standards
Some even tried to stop efforts to enforce standards (example: Florentine guild).
P2
██ █████ ███████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ████████ ████████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ████████████ ████████████ ████████ █████ ███████ ███ ████ █████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████████ ███████ █████████████ ██████████████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ █████████ ████████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████████ ████ ████ ███████████ ███████ █████████ ███ ███████████
Two potential hypotheses ·
Lawyers almost never violated standards, or disciplinary mechanisms were inefficient
P3
███ ██████████████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███
Author's perspective ·
Disciplinary mechanisms were probably inefficient
Support 1 ·
English civil courts (non-religious) have much more disciplinary action
Those courts had ethical standards similar to the religious courts. So, disparity in number of disciplinary actions is probably due to religious courts' inefficient enforcement mechanisms. It's unlikely that religious lawyers were simply much more unethical than civil lawyers.
P4
███████ ██████ ███████████ ██████████ ██████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ██ ███████ █████████ ███ ████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ███████ ████ ███
Support 2 ·
Lots of complaints by church authorities about unethical lawyers and inefficient disciplinary system
P5
████ ██████████ ████ ██ ████ ███ █ ███████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ███
Result of complaints (related to support 2) ·
Induced religious lawyers to defend themselves from criticism
Complaints may have encouraged lawyers to form professional associations and to de-prioritize disciplining fellow lawyers.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Single position
14.
The author would be most ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ████████ █████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ██ ████████████ ███████ █████████████
a
It is untrue ███████ ██ ██ ████████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████████ ███████
Not supported for several reasons. First, it’s too strong – the author doesn’t assert that the hypothesis is “untrue” or contradicted. She does think it’s less “plausible” than an alternative hypothesis, but this doesn’t rise to the level of claiming that it’s not true or contradicted. Although the sources claim that medieval lawyers engaged in misconduct, this is simply evidence of misconduct; the claims could be mistaken or there could be some reason one might find them unpersuasive.Second, it’s not clear that the “church records” in P4 are records from courts.
b
It is unlikely ███████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████████ █████████ ████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████████
Not supported, because the author doesn’t cite to modern behavior to criticize the hypothesis.
c
It is unlikely ███████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████████ █████████ ████ ████████ ████████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ██ ████████ ████████
Supported. In P3, the author makes the point that there were many more examples of disciplinary actions against lawyers in civil law courts (this is behavior observed in a similar area of medieval society). The author thinks this shows that canon lawyers probably also engaged in misconduct, particularly because
d
It is impossible ██ ██████ █████████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████████ ██████████
Not supported, because the author cites evidence to suggest the hypothesis is less plausible than the alternative. So clearly the author thinks we can assess the hypothesis.
e
It is directly █████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ██████████████ ███████
Anti-supported. The author doesn’t think the hypothesis is likely to be true.