held under the cardinals Otho and Othobon, legates from pope Gregory IX and pope Clement IV, in the reign of king Henry III about the years 1220 and 1268. The provincial conſtitutions are principally the decrees of provincial ſynods, held under divers arch-biſhops of Canterbury, from Stephen Langton in the reign of Henry III to Henry Chichele in the reign of Henry IV; and adopted alſo by the province of York[1] in the reign of Henry VI. At the dawn of the reformation, in the reign of king Henry VIII, it was enacted in parliament[2] that a review ſhould be had of the canon law; and, till ſuch review ſhould be made, all canons, conſtitutions, ordinances, and ſynodals provincial, being then already made, and not repugnant to the law of the land or the king’s prerogative, ſhould ſtill be uſed and executed. And, as no ſuch review has yet been perfected, upon this ſtatute now depends the authority of the canon law in England.
As for the canons enacted by the clergy under James I, in the year 1603, and never confirmed in parliament, it has been ſolemnly adjudged upon the principles of law and the conſtitution, that where they are not merely declaratory of the antient canon law, but are introductory of new regulations, they do not bind the laity[3]; whatever regard the clergy may think proper to pay them.
There are four ſpecies of courts in which the civil and canon laws are permitted under different reſtrictions to be uſed. 1. The courts of the arch-biſhops and biſhops and their derivative officers, uſually called in our law courts chriſtian, curiae chriſtianitatis, or the eccleſiaſtical courts. 2. The military courts. 3. The courts of admiralty. 4. The courts of the two univerſities. In all, their reception in general, and the different degrees of that reception, are grounded intirely upon cuſtom; corroborated in the latter inſtance by act of parliament, ratifying thoſe charters which confirm the cuſtomary law of the univerſities.
- ↑ Burn’s eccl. law, pref. viii.
- ↑ Statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19; revived and confirmed by 1 Eliz. c. 1.
- ↑ Stra. 1057.
