DISCUSSION: Read lines 44-51 for the full context. The church itself criticized the canon lawyers for behaving badly.
This supports the second idea from the second paragraph. Canon lawyers did behave badly, but their professional organizations had poor enforcement mechanisms.
The Council of Basel itself was a pronouncement that criticized the lawyers for failing to obey the Pope.
Three of the wrong answers say that the Council of Basel showed how ethical standards were developed, or how disciplinary standards were developed, etc.
If three answers are so similar, they almost certainly aren’t correct. Especially since the Council of Basel was just a criticism that did nothing to develop standards, as far as we know.
___________
- The Council of Basel was just a reminder to be ethical. It didn’t create any new standards.
- We only know two things about England: Their civil lawyer associations punished violations, and they had good church records.
- CORRECT. The third and fourth paragraphs are used to support the second explanation from the second paragraph. The two explanations were that either: canon lawyers rarely misbehaved, or that canon lawyer legal associations had poor enforcement standards.
If the church was criticizing canon lawyers, then presumably the lawyers didn’t act like saints.
- This is very similar to answer choice A. To pick this, you would have to explain why A isn’t also right.
The Council of Basil was an announcement criticizing lawyers for not obeying the Pope’s ethical standards. It tells us nothing about how professional associations created legal standards.
- This is also similar to A and D. They’re variations on the same theme.
The Council of Basil said nothing about how standards were developed. It was a criticism of lawyers – nothing more, nothing less.
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