CHAPTER V. OF COURTS ECCLESIASTICAL, MILITARY, AND Ecclesiastical courts. [*62 ] BESIDES the several courts which were treated of in the preceding chapter, and in which all injuries are redressed that fall under the cognizance of the common law of England, or that spirit of equity which ought to be its constant attendant, there still remain some other courts of a jurisdiction equally public and general; which take cognizance of other species of injuries, of an ecclesiastical, military, and maritime nature; and therefore are properly distinguished by the title of Ecclesiastical Courts, Courts Military, and Courts Maritime. I. Before I descend to consider particular ecclesiastical courts, I must first of all in general premise, that in the time of our Saxon ancestors there was no sort of distinction between the lay and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction: the county court was as much a spiritual as a temporal tribunal: the rights of the church were ascertained and asserted at the same time, and by the same judges, as the rights of the laity. For this purpose the bishop of the diocese, and the alderman, or in his absence the sheriff of the county, used to sit together in the county court, and had there the cognizance of all causes as well ecclesiastical as civil: a superior deference being paid to the bishop's opinion in spiritual matters, and to that of the lay judges in temporal (a). This union of power was very advantageous to them both: the presence of the bishop added weight and reverence to the sheriff's proceedings; and the authority of the sheriff was equally useful to the bishop, by enforcing obedience to his decree in such refractory offenders as would otherwise have despised the thunder of mere ecclesiastical censures. But so moderate and rational a plan was wholly inconsistent with those views of ambition, that were then forming (a) Celeberrimo huic conventui epis copus et aldermannus intersunto; quo rum alter jura divina, alter humana populum edoceto. LL. Edgar. c. 5. OF COURTS ECCLESIASTICAL, MILITARY, AND MARITIME. by the court of Rome. It soon became an established maxim in the papal system of policy, that all ecclesiastical persons, and all ecclesiastical causes, should be solely and entirely subject to ecclesiastical jurisdiction only (1); which jurisdiction was supposed to be lodged in the first place and immediately in the pope, by divine indefeasible right and investiture from Christ himself; and derived from the pope to all inferior tribunals. Hence the canon law lays it down as a rule, that "sacerdotes a regibus honorandi sunt, non judicandi" (b); and places an emphatical reliance on a fabulous tale which it tells of the Emperor Constantine; that when some petitions were brought to him, imploring the aid of his authority against certain of his bishops, accused of oppression and injustice, he caused (says the holy canon) the petitions to be burnt in their presence, dismissing them with this valediction; "ite et inter vos causas vestras discutite, quia dignum non est ut nos judicemus Deos” (c). ecclesiastical court from the civil. It was not, however, till after the Norman conquest, that Separation of the this doctrine was received in England; when William I. (whose title was warmly espoused by the monasteries, which he liberally endowed, and by the foreign clergy, whom he brought over in shoals from France and Italy and planted in the best preferments of the English church) was at length prevailed upon to establish this fatal encroachment, and separate the ecclesiastical court from the civil: whether actuated by principles of bigotry, or by those of a more refined policy, in order to discountenance the laws of King Edward, abounding with the spirit of Saxon liberty, is not altogether *certain. But the latter, if not the cause, was undoubtedly the consequence, of this separation: for the Saxon laws were soon overborne by the Norman justiciaries, when the county court fell into disregard by the bishop's withdrawing his presence, in obedience to the charter of the Conqueror (d) (2); which prohibited any spiritual cause from being tried in the secular courts, and commanded the suitors to appear before the bishop only, whose decisions were directed to conform to the canon law (e). (b) Decret. part. 2, caus. 11, qu. 1, den in eadm. p. 6, 1. 24; 4 Inst. 259; Wilk. LL. Angl. Sax. 292. c. 41. (d) Hale, Hist. C. L. 102, (1) See vol. iv. p. 109. [*63 ] The two courts reunited, This union dissolved by a King Henry the First, at his accession, among other restorations of the laws of King Edward the Confessor, revived this of the union of the civil and ecclesiastical courts (ƒ). Which was, according to Sir Edward Coke (g), after the great heat of the conquest was past, only a restitution of the antient law of England. This, however, was ill relished by the popish clergy, who, under the guidance of that arrogant prelate Archbishop Anselm, very early disapproved of a measure that put them on a level with the profane laity, and subjected spiritual men and causes to the inspection of the secular magistrates: and therefore in their synod at Westsynod 3 Hen. I. minster, 3 Hen. I., they ordained that no bishop should attend the discussion of temporal causes (h); which soon dissolved this newly effected union. And when, upon the death of King Henry the First, the usurper (3) Stephen was brought in and supported by the clergy, we find one article of the oath which they imposed upon him was, that ecclesiastical persons and ecclesiastical causes should be subject only to the bishop's jurisdiction (i). And as it was about that time that the contest and emulation began between the laws of England and those of Rome (k), the temporal courts adhering to the former, and the spiritual adopting the latter as their rule of proceeding, this widened the breach between them, and made a coalition afterwards impracticable; which [*64 ] in hundret placita teneant, nec causam (f) Volo et præcipio, ut omnes de co- his code of laws extant in the red book of the Exchequer, though in general but of doubtful authority. Cap. 8. Generalia comitatuum placitu certis locis et vicibus teneantur. Intersint autem episcopi, comites, &c.; et agantur primo debita veræ christianitatis jura, secundo regis placita, postremo causæ singulorum dignis satisfactionibus exple antur. (g) 2 Inst. 70. (h) Ne episcopi sæcularium placitorum officium suscipiant. (Spelm. Cod. 301.) (i) Spelm. Cod. 310. (k) See vol. i. Introd. § 1, pp. 18 to 22. (3) See vol. i. pp. 19, 200. probably would else have been effected at the general reformation of the church. In briefly recounting the various species of ecclesiastical courts, or, as they are often styled, courts christian, (curiæ christianitatis,) I shall begin with the lowest, and so ascend gradually to the supreme court of appeal (1). con's court. 1. The archdeacon's court is the most inferior court in the 1. The archdeawhole ecclesiastical polity. It is held in the archdeacon's absence before a judge appointed by himself, and called his official: and its jurisdiction is sometimes in concurrence with, sometimes in exclusion of, the bishop's court of the diocese. From hence, however, by statute 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12, an appeal lies to that of the bishop. court. 2. The consistory court of every diocesan bishop is held 2. The consistory in their several cathedrals, for the trial of all ecclesiastical causes arising within their respective dioceses. The bishop's chancellor, or his commissary, is the judge; and from his sentence an appeal lies, by virtue of the same statute, to the archbishop of each province respectively. arches. [*65 ] 3. The court of arches is a court of appeal belonging to 3. The court of the Archbishop of Canterbury; whereof the judge is called *the dean of the arches; because he antiently held his court in the church of St. Mary le bow, (sancta Maria de arcubus,) though all the principal spiritual courts are now holden at Doctors' Commons. His proper jurisdiction is only over the thirteen peculiar parishes belonging to the Archbishop in London; but the office of dean of the arches having been for a long time united with that of the Archbishop's principal official, he now, in right of the last mentioned office, (as doth also the official principal of the Archbishop of York,) receives and determines appeals from the sentences of all inferior ecclesiastical courts within the province. And from him an appeal lies to the king in Chancery (4), (that is, to a court of delegates appointed under the king's great seal,) by (1) For further particulars see Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, Wood's Institute of the Common Law, and Oughton's Ordo Judiciorum. [It seems probable that, before the present session of par (4) Now, to the judicial committee of the Privy Council; see the statute of liament (1836) is over, the whole of 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 92; and 3 & 4 Will. 4, 4. The court of peculiars. [*66 ] 5. The prerogative court. statutę 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, as supreme head of the English church, in the place of the bishop of Rome, who formerly exercised this jurisdiction; which circumstance alone will furnish the reason why the popish clergy were so anxious to separate the spiritual court from the temporal. 4. The court of peculiars is a branch of and annexed to the court of arches. It has a jurisdiction over all those parishes dispersed through the province of Canterbury in the midst of other dioceses, which are exempt from the ordinary's jurisdiction, and subject to the metropolitan only. All ecclesiastical causes, arising within these peculiar or exempt jurisdictions, are, originally, cognizable by this court; from which an appeal lay formerly to the pope, but now by the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, to the king in Chancery (5). 5. The prerogative court is established for the trial of all testamentary causes, where the deceased hath left bona notabilia within two different dioceses. In which case the probate of wills belongs, as we have formerly seen (m), to the archbishop of the province, by way of special prerogative. And all causes relating to the wills, administrations, or legacies of such persons are, originally, cognizable herein, before a judge appointed by the archbishop, called the judge of the prerogative court; from whom an appeal lies, by statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, to the king in Chancery (6) instead of the pope as formerly. I pass by such ecclesiastical courts as have only what is called a voluntary and not a contentious, jurisdiction; which are merely concerned in doing or selling what no one opposes, and keeping an open office for that purpose, (as granting dispensations, licenses, faculties (7), and other remnants of the papal extortions,) but do not concern themselves with administering redress to any injury: and shall proceed to, (m) Book ii. ch. 32, pp. 494, 509. (5) See the last note. (6) See the last note but one. censes." pews in parish churches, and the prudence of strictly limiting such faculties, so as to preserve the right of changing the occupation of pews from time to time, as circumstances may require, see ante, the note to vol. ii. p. 429. |