Before a graduate lawyer could work as a lawyer in matrimonial proceedings he had to be authorised to do so by the consistory, and had to take the lawyer’s oath. With this oath the lawyer obliged himself to represent the interests of his clients to the best of his knowledge, using all necessary legal procedures, and without undue delay, in order to successfully bring the proceedings to a close. A form for the juramentum advocatorum is preserved in the Viennese Diocese Archive:
You will swear an oath to God, that you will accept and take up the case of the clients who choose you to be their legal representative, and that you will do so to the best of your knowledge, with a pure conscience, truthfully, uprightly and without delay, and that you will deliver what is needed to the higher and lower authorities in the form of written and oral pro exigentia causae, and also draft supplications and other written documents needed, without charging more than the usual amount of payment, and without knowingly perpetrating harm.
Andrea Griesebner, translation Jennifer Blaak, 2016