IN the time of our Saxon ancestors there was no Formerly no sort of distinction between the Lay and the Ecclesias- distinction between Lay tical Jurisdictions, the County Court was as much and Ecclea Spiritual as a Temporal Tribunal; the rights of the siastical Juris Church were ascertained and asserted at the same time, and by the same Judges as the rights of the laity. (a) dictions. in the County For this purpose the Bishop of the Diocese, and Bishop and the Alderman or Earl, or, in his absence, the Sheriff Alderman sat of the County, used to sit together in the County Court. 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. (b) William the This system, however, was not relished by the Separation Court of Rome, and after the Norman Conquest, made by William the Conqueror was at length prevailed Conqueror. upon to separate the Ecclesiastical Court from the Civil, and to establish, what Sir William Blackstone calls, "this fatal encroachment." A Charter was accordingly issued, 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. (c) (a) 3 Bla. Com. 61. (b) 3 Bla. Com. 61; L. L. Eadgar, c. 5. (c) 3 Bla. Com. 62, 63; Hale Hist. C. L. 102; 4 Inst. 259. Henry I. revived the union. This was dis King Henry I., at his accession, among other restorations of the laws of King Edward the Confessor, revived the union of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts; which, according to Sir Edward Coke, after the great heat of the Conquest was passed, was only a restitution of the ancient law of England. (d) The Popish Clergy, however, early disapproved of approved of by this measure, and therefore, in their Synod at Westthe Popish Clergy. minster, 3 Henry I., they ordained that no Bishop should attend the Discussion of temporal causes, which soon dissolved this newly-effected union. (d) And Stephen made Ecclesiastical causes subject to the Bishop only. Connection between the Ecclesiastical and Common Law Courts. When upon the death of King Henry I., the usurper 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. And it was about this time that the contest began between the laws of England and those of Rome, the Temporal Courts adhering to the former, and the Spiritual adopting the latter as their rule of proceeding. (e) Sir William Blackstone says: "the timely aids, which the Common and Statute Laws have lent to the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, may serve to refute that groundless notion which some are too apt to entertain, that the Courts at Westminster Hall are at open variance with those at Doctors Commons. It is true they are sometimes obliged to use a (d) 3 Bla. Com. 63; Curt. (e) 3 Bla. Com. 64; Spelm. Cod. 301. |