The Medieval Church in the Isles, Part 16: Its Courts Christian

An often overlooked aspect of the medieval church in the Isles is its system of ecclesiastical courts, referred to at the time as Courts Christian.

In the Anglo-Saxon church, bishops and abbots often sat in on temporal courts of law, but William the Conqueror put an end to that.  Initially, he tried to separate temporal law and ecclesiastical law completely, but even under him, certainly legal areas lent themselves more to being dealt with by the Church.  By the Late Middle Ages, the jurisdictional scope of the Courts Christian grew quite large.

Areas dealt with by them included failings among the clergy (non-residence, negligence, moral faults), fabric of church buildings, state of graveyards, condition of church ornaments, withholding of lawful revenues from the Church, possession of church revenues, presentations to benifices, sacrilege, immorality, assaults of spouses, assaults on clerics, failure to attend Mass, matrimonial matters, legitimacy of children, slander and defamation, broken oaths, testamentary matters, adultery, deflowering of virgins, sodomy, arson, simony, notorious cases of murder, incest, perjury, poisoning, witchcraft, blasphemy, and heresy.

Basic structure

Like any other court system, the Courts Christian in the Western Church, aka the Patriarchate of Rome, had by the High Middle Ages a system of higher and lower courts, some only dealing with areas.

Ruridecanal courts were the most basic, at the level of a rural deanery, in some cases being rural chapters (meetings) of the clergy of the deanery, presided over by the dean, the archdeacon, or a commissary.  Of course, there were dioceses that had no deaneries, but in those that did, many cases of first instance were first heard at this level.

Archdeaconry courts were presided over by the archdeacon, and later in the Middle Ages, more often by his official.  If there were multiple archdeaconries in a diocese, each had its own archdeaconry court.  These courts, too, were often courts of first instance, as well as being in certain instances the first court of appeal from the deanery level.

Peculiar courts were ecclesiastical courts for peculiars, parishes under a bishop of one diocese which geographically lay within the bounds of another diocese, primarily because of the distance between the peculiar and the see of the diocese to which it belonged.

Courts of audience were diocesan courts that in the beginning were exactly what they sounded like; courts before the bishop.  In the High and Late Middle Ages, they were most often presided over by a vicar-general, dealing with matters of voluntary jurisdiction and administrative issues.

Consistory courts were the main diocesan Courts Christian, in some case courts of first instance but mainly courts of second instance in cases of contentious jurisdiction.  Although the diocese’s bishop always had the right to preside, this duty was almost always delegated to a deputy known as the official.  In dioceses with multiple consistory courts, generally one for each archdeaconry, the official in the see was designated the official principal and those in outlying archdeaconries were officials forane, though there was some variance in nomenclature.

Provincial courts were the most varied in structure between jurisdictions, including courts of appeal from the consistory courts and, usually, courts of ultimate appeal for testamentary matters.

Papal courts were the highest level of appeal, and while in theory appeals from provinces could be heard in Rome, the common practice was for a papal judge delegate to preside over a legatine court in the see of the archdiocese of the province.

Provincial courts in the Isles

In the Province of Canterbury, its provincial court was called the Court of the Arches, which sat in one of the peculiar parishes of the Archbishop of Canterbury in London named St. Mary-le-Bow.  This court was presided over by the Official Principal.  The archdiocese also had a single Court of Peculiars for its thirteen peculiar parishes in the Diocese of London which also sat in St. Mary-le-Bow, presided over by the Dean of Arches.

Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Canterbury had its diocesan court which sat in the see of Canterbury called the Commissary Court, presided over by the Commissary General.  Its Court of Audience was presided over by the Vicar General, and there was also a court dealing only with testamentary matters of the province called the Prerogative Court, presided over by a judge called the Keeper or the Master.

In the Province of York, its provincial court was called the Chancery Court, presided over by a judge known as the Auditor, with testamentary cases dealt with by the Court of the Exchequer.  For the archdiocese, its Court of Audience was presided over by the Official Principal, who also presided over its diocesan-level Consistory Court.

In the Diocese of Lincoln, its Court of Audience was presided over by the Vicar General and its Consistory Court by the Official and a deputy known as the Commissary General.  Within the diocese, there were consistory courts for each archdeaconry called Commissary Courts, with the Commissary who presided usually also the same person as the Official of the local archdeacon.

In the Province of St. Andrews, its provincial court was called the Court of the Officialty and the Court of St. Andrews, presided over by the Official Principal, with a deputy called the Commissary General.  For the archdiocese, because of its spread out nature, there was a Court of Audience presided over by a Vicar General in each of its two archdeaconries (St. Andrews and Lothian, which met at St. Giles in Edinburgh), as well as a Consistory Court in each presided over by an Official.

In the Province of Glasgow, there was a provincial Court of the Officialty, presided over by the Official Principal, most likely with a deputy called Commissary General (less is known about this province).  In the archdiocese, there was a Consistory Court of the archdeaconry of Glasgow nominally presided over by Official Principal with the Commissary General usually sitting, and a Consistory Court in the archdeaconry of Teviodale.

In the four provinces of Ireland, the system of Courts Christian was much more rudimentary, with no provinces having prerogative courts and the same court in the sees of the archdioceses serving as the court for both the archdiocese and the province.

Judges and other administrators of Courts Christian

Archdeacon was the sole episcopal delegate for judicial authority of the diocese in the early centuries of the Church.  Beginning in the High Middle Ages, the archdeacon’s judicial authority was limited to original jurisdiction in church legal matters, presiding over the tribunal of first instance and over minor criminal matters in the aptly named Court of the Archdeaconry.  In some instances, the (post-Reformation) prerogative court of Armagh, for instance, the archdeacon served as commissary for the vicar general when the latter was away.

Vicar General had delegated episcopal authority over matters of voluntary jurisdiction (of non-judicial and administrative nature) brought before the diocese, usually presided over its Court of Audience, and served as the chief executive of the diocese in the absence of the bishop.

Official Principal had delegated episcopal authority over matters of contentious jurisdiction brought before the diocese, and presided over the tribunal of second instance in the Consistory Court.  In Scotland, this court was known as the Officialty or the Court of the Official.

Chancellor (of a diocese) in the Church of England after the break with Rome replaced both the official principal and the vicar general in addition to his other duties.

Commissary General was the chief deputy of the Official Principal and supervised ordinary commissaries.

Apparitor General supervised all the apparitors in the diocese.

Official Forane was the delegate of episcopal judicial authority in an archdeaconry other than the one whose seat was in the see of the diocese, in dioceses that had more than one archdeaconry.  In some diocese, such as Lincoln, these judges were instead called Commissaries.

Commissary adjudicated matters of contentious jurisdiction in outlying districts of the diocese too far from the see for parties to travel to without dire inconvenience.  The seat of a commissary court was usually peripatetic, like the original circuit courts in USA.  Commissary was also the designation for the judicial counterpart of a vicar in normal church administration, and for deputies of an Official.

Papal judge delegate presided over a legatine court.

Apparitor was the officer who summoned parties in disputes or accused persons before the ecclesiastical courts.

Procurator fiscal was the counterpart to what is now usually called a prosecutor, with origins in the manorial office of fiscal.

Canon law required that in cases where the court determined both parties needed to be represented by counsel and one or both were indigent, not competent, or a child, that the court appoint counsel for them.  Should a lawyer refuse such an appointment, he could be disbarred.

Proctor, also called procurator, represented his clients in the Courts Christian in ways that make him akin to a modern solicitor.  If represented by a proctor, a person did not have to appear personally.

Originally, anyone of good character with a modicum of education who was not a woman, excommunicant, serf, slave, or judge could be a proctor, but a priest was prohibited unless he was arguing on behalf of his church.

Advocate was the representative of his clients before the courts Christian at any level, the counterpart of the defense attorney in USA or barrister in the British Isles, and also stood for the Church in temporal courts.  Its origin was in the manorial advocatus.  If represented by an advocate, a party had to be present in court, supported and counseled by the advocate. 

An advocate was required to study canon and civil law for five years.

Auditor of causes was the judge of the internal court of a cathedral chapter and in some cases matters from outside.

Temporal courts of prelates

For the temporal lands and other possession of bishops, abbots, and other prelates, the owners thereof acted through their chamberlains, in many cases with a chamberlain for each archdeaconry.  Below these were a seneschal for each district with baillies underneath them.

As feudal lords, prelates held courts of barony over their temporal estates across the Isles.  By the Late Middle Ages in Scotland, most baronies held by bishops, abbots, and most conventual priors (most notably the Prior of Coldingham, though there were many others) had been raised to lordships of regality, with courts of the same.  A regality lay outside the authority of a sheriff.

The only corresponding ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the English church that approached that of the ecclesiastical regalities in Scotland was the County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge, made up of County Durham and the wapentake Sadberge of County Northumberland, with the authority of the Sheriff of Northumberland confined to the rest of that county.