Chaucer's ‘Man of Law’ begins his ‘tale’ with a diatribe against the ‘hateful harm’ of poverty, an opening entirely in character with a serjeant-at-law who:

The audience would have caught the allusion at once; wealth was the goal of the lawyer, the measure of success. It would have enjoyed, also, the Serjeant's praise of wealthy merchants:

This identification of the law and wealth is universally made, and generally in terms less urbane than Chaucer's. The besetting sin, almost the trade-mark of the lawyers, is avarice. Refusing to share knowledge except for money appears a simple lack of charity, and the esoteric language and exclusiveness of the profession seem a conspiracy to fleece the layman. In medieval England this was a stock theme of the moralist, increasingly heard as lawyers became better organised and more influential. When Thomas Kebell joined the profession, the anonymous London Lickpenny was in circulation: