Ecclesiastical Courts Decline in Power

Ecclesiastical Courts Decline in Power

Introduction to Ecclesiastical Courts Decline in Power

The Reformation was a basic cause of the decline of the ecclesiastical courts. Other causes included the rise of representative government, the separation of judicial from executive and legislative powers of government, and the separation of church and state. Gradually the power and jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts were reduced to their present limits.

A remnant of the former extensive jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts survives in the three papal tribunals-the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary, Apostolic Signatura, and Sacred Roman Rota-which constitute the judicial branch of the Roman Curia. In the United Kingdom, which has an established church, the ecclesiastical courts derive their authority nominally from the Crown; the principal tribunals are called Archdeacon’s Court, Bishop’s or Consistory Court, Chancery Court of York, Court of Arches, and Final Appeal Court, the last named comprising the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. In the Protestant sections of Germany and in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and other countries where Protestantism is nonepiscopal, ecclesiastical courts have virtually ceased to exist.” (1)

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Guide to Ecclesiastical Courts Decline in Power

In this Section

Ecclesiastical Courts, Ecclesiastical Courts Origins, Ecclesiastical Courts in the Middle Ages and Ecclesiastical Courts Decline in Power.


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