In the Roman and Spanish churches, pleaders before the courts were not eligible to the clerical office. The rule, however, was not universal, for the Council of Sardica enacted that a lawyer might be ordained a bishop if he passed through the inferior grades of reader, deacon, and presbyter. On the other hand, clergymen were not allowed to act as lawyers, or to plead either their own cause or even an ecclesiastical one. Bribery and extortion were forbidden to lawyers under severe penalties.