Chapter 2 - What Happened in an Ecclesiastical Court?

Summary

Ecclesiastical courts were rightly seen by nineteenth-century thinkers as a closed shop, a court system separate from the general court system which had its own proctors, advocates and judges. These courts had jurisdiction over the laity in a number of matters such as marriage, burial and probate of wills, though this changed during the century. The chapter describes the attempts at reform, and the difficulties with discipline of the laity as well as clergy that were addressed in the course of legislative change. Appeal lay with the secular courts and here too lay problems, where the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council served as the final court of appeal