Avoué

During the Middle Ages, the Latin word advocatus (in English, advocate; in French avoué; in German, Vogt) was a general term for any person called (ad vocatus) to defend another, such as a lawyer or an advocatus ecclesiae, usually a lay lord charged with the protecting a particular church.

The advocatus as an officer of a court of law first appears in the 12th and 13th centuries, concomitant with the rediscovery of Roman law.

The term advocatus ecclesiae, literally "advocate of the church", is the Latin title of certain persons whose duty it was, under given conditions, to represent a particular church or monastery, and to defend its rights against force. These advocates were specially bound to represent their clients before the secular courts. They exercised civil jurisdiction in the domain of the church or monastery, and were bound to protect the church with arms in the event of actual assault. Finally, it was their duty to lead the men-at-arms in the name of the church or monastery, and to command them in time of war. In return for these services the advocate received certain definite revenues from the possessions of the church, in the form of supplies or services, which he could demand, or in the form of a lien on the church property.

Such advocates are to be found even in Roman times; a Synod of Carthage decreed, in 401, that the emperor should be requested to provide, in conjunction with the bishops, defensores for the churches. There is evidence, moreover, for such defensores ecclesiæ in Italy, at the close of the fifth century, but Pope Gregory I confined the office to members of the clergy. It was the duty of these defensores to protect the poor, and to defend the rights and possessions of the church.

In the Frankish Kingdom, under the Merovingians, these lay representatives of the churches appear as agentes, defensores and advocati.

Under the Carolingians, the duties of the church advocate were enlarged and defined according to the principles of government which prevailed in the reign of Charlemagne; henceforward we meet with the advocatus ecclesiæ in the medieval sense. A Capitulary of about 790 ordained that the higher clergy, "for the sake of the churches honour, and the respect due to the priesthood" (pro ecclesiastico honore, et pro sacerdotum reverentia) should have advocates. Charlemagne, who obliged bishops, abbots and abbesses to maintain advocati, commanded to exercise great care in the choice of persons to fill the office; they must be judicious men, familiar with the law, and owning property in the -then still administrative- countship (Grafschaft). The churches, monasteries and canonries, as such, alike received advocates, who by degrees assumed the position above defined.

...
Wikipedia