The Canon Law of the Church of England: Its Implications for Unity

1988 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 18-23
Author(s):  
Quentin Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
Legal Foundations ◽  
The Church

Among lawyers who profess to know their way about the labyrinth of the Church of England's legal foundations there is a debate whether there are two subjects or one – are ecclesiastical law and canon law the same? As some purists contend that canon law is more restricted in its scope I shall take, for convenience and perhaps accuracy, the description ecclesiastical law, which certainly comprehends, or should comprehend, canon law. The ecclesiastical law of the Church of England is derived from six sources (1) papal and domestic canon law, (2) ecclesiastical common law, (3) the relevant parts of the Corpus Juris Civilis, (4) parliamentary statutes, (5) Measures of the Church Assembly and the General Synod, (6) the Canons.

Sovereignty and Common Law Judicial Office in Taylor's Case (1675)

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 397-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kearns
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
Chief Justice ◽  
Spiritual Nature ◽  
The Common ◽  
English Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Church ◽  
Law Making

This essay argues that the 1675 conviction of John Taylor by the Court of King's Bench for slandering God reveals Chief Justice Matthew Hale implementing a model of conjoint law-making between courts, Parliament, and crown that gave pre-eminent power to the common lawyers, and none to the Church of England. In doing so, it counters the prevailing literature on Restoration English law, which has treated the law as hierarchical, with the common lawyers subordinate to the sovereign. Rather than following statute or ecclesiastical law, which emphasised the spiritual nature of crimes like Taylor's, Hale located Taylor's offence in the exclusively temporal common law jurisdiction of defamation, which existed largely outside of monarchical purview. Hale's judgment reflected his rhetoric of judicial office outside the courtroom, where he argued the judiciary worked alongside King and Parliament in making law, but were not subservient to these institutions, for common lawyers relied on sources of law beyond sovereign-made statute. The language of sovereignty as hierarchical was thus a factional attack on an independent common law, an attempt to subordinate the common lawyers to the crown that was resisted by the lawyers like Hale in his rhetoric and exercise of office, and should not ground accounts of the Restoration regime.

The Church of England and the Law of Divorce since 1837: Marriage Discipline, Ecclesiastical Law and the Establishment

1994 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-641
Author(s):  
Bruce S. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Essential Point ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
The Status ◽  
Practical Reality ◽  
State Changes ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

Ever since Henry VIII, the law of marriage has occupied a special place in the relationship between the Church of England and the state. Changes made to the law since 1857 have raised far-reaching and difficult questions about the nature of this relationship, involving the status of canon law. Marriage in church has remained, perhaps even more than the other rites of passage, an essential point at which the Church of England still touches the lives of great numbers of the otherwise unchurched, and these questions have thus impinged on the practical reality of the Church's work.

The Court of Arches: Jurisdiction to Jurisprudence – ‘Entirely Settled’?

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-341
Author(s):  
Norman Doe
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Court System ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
Court Of Appeal ◽  
The Church ◽  
As If

The Arches Court, the court of appeal of the Province of Canterbury in the Church of England, has existed for more than 700 years. Its evolution – driven by principle, politics and pragmatism – is a fascinating reflection of a key tribunal in the court system of the English Church, and the site of major historical and often contentious developments within the Church. Its appellate status has not changed; it still has jurisdiction over faculties and clergy discipline; its judge is still appointed by the archbishop; and its jurisprudence has contributed much to the development of English ecclesiastical law. However, over the centuries its jurisdiction has contracted; the courts to which appeals against its decisions lie have changed; its historical lawyers of civilian advocates and proctors have been replaced by common law barristers and solicitors; the title for its judge, Dean of Arches, has survived by accident; its procedure has been simplified; and its decisions have throughout its history been respected but today have the authority of binding precedents. The article takes the story up to 2018, when the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Care of Churches Measure provided that a decision of the Arches and of the provincial Chancery Court of York is today to be followed as if it were a decision of the other court.

The Development of Canonical Jurisprudence in the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England

Ecclesiology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-325
Author(s):  
Gordon Arthur
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church ◽  
Degree Of Similarity

AbstractThis paper offers a theological examination of the legal theory underlying the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church from the time of Gratian onwards, and of the Church of England since the Reformation, comparing the latter with parallel developments in English Common Law. Despite their very different contexts, structures and emphases, a surprising degree of similarity emerges, which may provide a basis for further discussion and convergence in the future.

The Ecclesiastical Common Law: A Quarter-century Retrospective

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-42
Author(s):  
Charles George
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
The Church

This article reviews developments in ecclesiastical case law (interpreted widely) over the 25 years since the Ecclesiastical Law Journal was founded, focusing on four areas, in each of which, in the author's view, there have been significant developments: freedom of religion; the constitution of the Church of England; the protection of listed buildings; liturgy, ritual and doctrine. It notes the role of the Journal in reporting consistory court decisions and thus ensuring greater consistency of decision-making. It concludes by mentioning some of the leading cases in various other areas of ecclesiastical law.

The Catholic Tribunal System in the British Isles

1991 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. 213-221
Author(s):  
Gordon Read
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Code Of Canon Law ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
Church Life ◽  
The Church

“The claim to have succeeded in covering every side of Church life at the conclusion of the herculean labour of codification on this scale would indeed be a bold one, and one very uncongenial to the spirit of English law”, comments the report entitled ‘The Canon Law of the Church of England’. Despite the production of a Code of Canon Law for the Church of England, the provisions of law as applying to the Church of England are much more complex, involving not only the provisions of the Code, but also Common Law, Statute Law, judicial decisions and occasional survivals from Mediaeval Canon Law. For this reason although the ecclesiastical courts of the Church of England and of the Roman Catholic Church have common origins and features, there are also many differences, not only in structure, but in the material that comes before them.

Education in Canon Law

1998 ◽  
Vol 5 (22) ◽  
pp. 46-48
Author(s):  
Christopher Hill
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Employment Law ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
The Church ◽  
Rules Of The Game ◽  
Law And Gospel

For a number of years the Society has been troubled at the absence of, or at least the spasmodic nature of, any systematic teaching about Canon or Ecclesiastical law among ordinands and clergy of the Church of England. The first that an ordinand knows of law is often his or her Declaration of Assent and licensing as an Assistant Curate. Provided there are no great crises or scandals, or problems over marriages when the training Incumbent goes on holiday leaving the new Deacon to his or her own devices, the next occasion of ecclesiastical law will be at first incumbency, or possibly as a Team Vicar. After that Faculties, secular employment law, the Children Act, the Charities Act, the Ecumenical Canons become increasingly important; not to speak of the Pastoral Measure in Teams and Groups. No other profession would allow its officers such systematic ignorance of the rules of the game, or be so tardy in providing them with a summary of their rights and responsibilities. Sadly the image of law—and lawyers—has obscured the need for knowledge of professional rules and good practice. A misunderstanding of St Paul on Law and Gospel has permeated much evangelical, charismatic and radical thinking. Anglo-Catholics have a perverse respect for the canon law of another church rather than their own. But the tide has begun to turn.

The Origin and Founding of the Ecclesiastical Law Society

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (26) ◽  
pp. 316-319
Author(s):  
Quentin Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
Ecclesiastical Courts ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Shaped Hole ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The Church ◽  
Law Commission

There was an ecclesiastical law shaped hole in the Church of England from the dissolution of Doctors' Commons in 1857 until 1987 when it was filled by the formation of the Ecclesiastical Law Society. In 1947, forty years earlier, the Archbishops' Canon Law Commission had suggested how the hole might be filled. The Commission was appointed in 1939 and published its report under the title The Canon Law of the Church of England (SPCK, 1947). The Report consisted of a learned and authoritative review of the sources of English canon law and made recommendations for its reform, in particular by appending to the Report a body of suggested revised canons. Included in the Report was the following paragraph expressing the hope that a society might be formed for the study of canon law:‘The success of a new code of canons will to a great extent depend on a wider knowledge than at present exists among the clergy of the law of the Church of England, its nature, history, development, and particular characteristics; and it is hoped that the previous chapters of this Report will provide an elementary introduction to the subject. We recommend therefore that those who are responsible for the training of ordination candidates and for the post-ordination training of the clergy should be asked to consider what steps can be taken to give both ordinands and clergy a more professional knowledge of the Church's law and constitution. In giving evidence before the Ecclesiastical Courts Commission in 1883 the late Sir Lewis Dibdin pointed out that since the disappearance of Doctors' Commons in 1857 there had really been no method of teaching or preserving a knowledge of the Ecclesiastical Law. It is impossible at this stage to revive anything like Doctors' Commons, but we would suggest that a society, consisting of clergy, professional historians, and lawyers, be formed for the purpose of studying the Ecclesiastical Law and of suggesting ways in which that law either needs alteration or can be developed to meet new needs. As a rule there is far too little contact and interchange of ideas and points of view between the clergy and ecclesiastical lawyers, and such a society would give opportunities for this. Such a society would train up a number of people competent to advise and help the clergy in the particular problems of Ecclesiastical Law with which from time to time they are confronted.’

Head and Members

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Common Law ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines the role of the bishops of Rome, or popes, as ‘vicars of St Peter’, and also as ‘vicars of Christ’. St Paul taught that the Church was the body of Christ. If the Church was a body, then clearly, as John Alcock, bishop of Ely, declared in 1497, ‘in every realm of Christianity, the head thereof is Christ’. The chapter first considers what ordinary English people thought about popes and the papacy before discussing the issue of royal taxation of the clergy and the appointment of clergy to English benefices. It then explores lines of demarcation between common law and canon law, along with the arrest, imprisonment and death of a merchant named Richard Hunne, who was accused of heresy. It also looks at the issue of reforming the Church of England and people.

The Seal of the Confessional

1990 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 84-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rupert D. H. Bursell
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
General Law ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Ecclesiastical Courts ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Church ◽  
Grave Danger

The seal of the confessional was part of the canon law applied in England before the Reformation. It was also part of that law which was continued in force at the Reformation, as is confirmed by the proviso to canon 113 of the 1603 Canons. This proviso is still in force and proprio vigore binds the clergy of the Church of England. By the Act of Uniformity, 1662, the hearing of confessions was enjoined upon those clergy in certain circumstances; the law places no limit upon the frequency of their being heard. It is unsurprising that there are infrequent references to the seal of the confessional since the Reformation; such cases as there are are inconclusive. Nevertheless, although the seal of the confessional may be waived by the penitent, the refusal by an Anglican clergyman to disclose what was said within sacramental confession is based upon a duty imposed on him by the ecclesiastical law rather than upon an evidential privilege. An Anglican clergyman in breach of that duty would be in grave danger of censure by the ecclesiastical courts and such censure might well lead to his deprivation and possible deposition from Holy Orders. The ecclesiastical law is part of the general law of the land and must be applied in both the ecclesiastical and secular courts. Both courts must therefore enforce that clerical duty and uphold any refusal by an Anglican clergyman to answer questions in breach of the seal of the confessional.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document