never so many of them: "which are now multiplied" (saith Mat. Geraldus,
[501]a lawyer himself,) "as so many locusts, not the parents, but the
plagues of the country, and for the most part a supercilious, bad,
covetous, litigious generation of men." [502]_Crumenimulga natio_ &c. A
purse-milking nation, a clamorous company, gowned vultures, [503]_qui ex
injuria vivent et sanguine civium_, thieves and seminaries of discord;
worse than any pollers by the highway side, _auri accipitres, auri
exterebronides, pecuniarum hamiolae, quadruplatores, curiae harpagones,
fori tintinabula, monstra hominum, mangones_, &c. that take upon them to
make peace, but are indeed the very disturbers of our peace, a company of
irreligious harpies, scraping, griping catchpoles, (I mean our common
hungry pettifoggers, [504]_rabulas forenses_, love and honour in the
meantime all good laws, and worthy lawyers, that are so many [505]oracles
and pilots of a well-governed commonwealth). Without art, without judgment,
that do more harm, as [506]Livy said, _quam bella externa, fames, morbive_,
than sickness, wars, hunger, diseases; "and cause a most incredible
destruction of a commonwealth," saith [507]Sesellius, a famous civilian
sometimes in Paris, as ivy doth by an oak, embrace it so long, until it
hath got the heart out of it, so do they by such places they inhabit; no
counsel at all, no justice, no speech to be had, _nisi eum premulseris_, he
must be fed still, or else he is as mute as a fish, better open an oyster
without a knife. _Experto crede_ (saith [508] Salisburiensis) _in manus
eorum millies incidi, et Charon immitis qui nulli pepercit unquam, his
longe clementior est_; "I speak out of experience, I have been a thousand
times amongst them, and Charon himself is more gentle than they; [509]he is
contented with his single pay, but they multiply still, they are never
satisfied," besides they have _damnificas linguas_, as he terms it, _nisi
funibus argenteis vincias_, they must be fed to say nothing, and [510]get
more to hold their peace than we can to say our best. They will speak their
clients fair, and invite them to their tables, but as he follows it,