Lawyers, bad Christians

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Jurists, bad Christians” was a derogatory expression that was widespread in the late Middle Ages and early modern times about the legal profession, a topos of legal criticism.

The procurator in Jost Amman's book of
estates from 1568. The rhymed caption by Hans Sachs begins with the words I procurir in front of the court, and often defends an evil matter .

If today lawyers are more or less jokingly referred to as wrongdoers, then behind the proverb there was a serious moral charge relating to the emergence of learned, academic lawyers.

In his didactic poem Der Renner , created around 1300 , Hugo von Trimberg contrasted the good jurists with the bad “Judists” ( Judas sons ) - four manuscripts read “Jurists” instead. Greedy lawyers stand on the side of the powerful and use their subtleties to bend the law of the poor without paying attention to the truth. In the Ackermann from Bohemia by Johannes von Tepl , the justification of the legal status of death is in principle doubted: "Jurist who cristes without conscience" .

Evidence from the time of the Reformation shows that the phrase was widely used by lawyers as evil Christians who cunningly cause injustice. Martin Luther used them frequently, with a particular focus on the rabulistic book scholarship of the Catholic canonists . In 1666 the proverb was still very popular. In the 17th century "Juristenspiegel" emerged which responded to the widespread criticism by demanding the personal integrity of the lawyer.

For centuries, the story of the saying 'lawyers, bad Christians' has been a story of the social prestige of lawyers and the internal and external threats to the legal profession. Even if the idiom is no longer very common today, many of the motifs that were associated with it in the course of development are unmistakably alive. "

literature

  • Michael Stolleis: legal abuse, or: "lawyers - bad Christians" . In: Theo Stammen (Ed.) U. a .: Politics - Education - Religion. Hans Maier on his 65th birthday . Paderborn u. a. 1996, pp. 163-170, ISBN 3-506-75603-6
  • Claudio Soliva : Jurists - Christians - Lists . In: Harro von Senger (Ed.): Die List . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1999, pp. 263-280, ISBN 3-51812-039-5

Web links