To anyone interested in the study of origins the symbolic value of the coif is very considerable. Like the _pileus_, it may be traced back to the ecclesiastical skull-cap, the corollary of tonsure. In the Dark Ages the lawyers were almost invariably clergy, in the modern sense of the term. By the thirteenth century the original skull-cap, while retaining its general shape, had developed into a head-dress of ampler proportions, and as such, might, and did, serve as a complete disguise of the clerical calling. For that reason it was forbidden to the clergy by Othobon's Constitutions (1268), except as a night or travelling cap. Like the Serjeant's coif of more recent date, it was white in colour; and, as an appanage of the legal profession, it was worn by judges and pleaders alike. The strings were used to tie the coif to the head, and were fastened under the chin. It has been plausibly suggested that the Black Cap which judges assume, when passing sentence of death, was a device for concealing the coif, ecclesiastical justices being debarred from pronouncing capital sentence; and in this connexion we may recall the constitutional tradition, which requires the Bishops to withdraw when issues involving life or death come before the Parliamentary Courts. We have spoken of _graduation_ in relation to law. As an explanation of the phrase, nothing could be more apt than a passage in Coke's "Third Report," which, although somewhat lengthy, deserves to be cited _in toto_: "As there be in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford divers degrees, as general Sophisters, Bachelors, Masters, Doctors, of whom be chosen men for eminent and judicial places, both in the Church and Ecclesiastical Courts, so in the profession of the law there are Mootemen [i.e., students], which are those that argue readers' cases in houses of Chancery, both in terms and grand vacations. Of Mootemen, after eight years' study or thereabouts, are chosen Utter-barristers; of these are chosen Readers in inns of Chancery. Of Utter-barristers after they have been of that degree twelve years at least, are chosen Benchers or Ancients; of which one, that is of the puisne sort, reads yearly in summer vacation, and is called a Single Reader; and one of the Ancients that had formerly read reads in Lent vacation and is called a Double Reader, and commonly it is between his first and second reading about nine or ten years. And out of these the King makes choice of his Attorney and Solicitor General, his Attorney of the Court of Wards and Liveries, and Attorney of the Duchy; and of these Readers are Serjeants elected by the King, and are, by the King's writ, called _ad statum et gradum servientis ad legem_; and out of these the King electeth one, two, or three, as please him, to be Serjeants, which are called the King's Serjeants; of Serjeants are by the King also constituted the honourable and reverend Judges and sages of the law. For the young