The Arches Court or Court of Arches, presided over by the Dean of Arches, is an ecclesiastical court of the Church of England covering the Province of Canterbury. Its equivalent in the Province of York is the Chancery Court.
It takes its name from the street-level arched windows of the old crypt of St Mary-le-Bow (Sancta Maria de Arcubus) where the court still sits.
The Court of Arches is the provincial Court of Appeal for Canterbury. It has both appellate and original jurisdiction. It is presided over by the Dean of the Arches, who is styled The Right Honourable and Right Worshipful the Official Principal and Dean of the Arches. The dean must be a barrister of ten years' High Court standing or the holder or former holder of high judicial office. The appointment is made by the two archbishops jointly.
At various times the court has sat in the church of St Mary-le-Bow (Sancta Maria de arcubus, formerly the archbishop's principal peculiar in London), whose arches give the court its name. The court used to sit in a large room over the north aisle of the 11th-century crypt adjoining Bow Lane. The room was later rebuilt on an even larger scale, and eventually came to be used as the vestry. [1] [2] After the Great Fire it was held in Doctors' Commons and also at 1 The Sanctuary, Westminster and St Paul's Cathedral. [3] Its permanent home remains St Mary le Bow, where regular sittings include those to confirm the election of each new diocesan bishop in the province. The Provincial Registry is at 16 Beaumont Street, Oxford.
The proper jurisdiction of the court is over only the 13 peculiar parishes belonging to the archbishop in London. But, as the office of Dean of the Arches is united with that of Principal Official, the dean receives and determines appeals from the sentences of all lesser ecclesiastical courts within the province. Many original suits are also heard, where lesser courts waive jurisdiction by letters of request. Appeal lies with the Privy Council, except on matters of doctrine, ritual or ceremony, which go to the Court for Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved. [3]
There may also be a Deputy Dean. The court normally consists of the dean, two clerks appointed by the prolocutor of the lower house of the appropriate convocation and two lay people appointed by the Chairman of the House of Laity in consultation with the Lord Chancellor. Such appointees will have had judicial experience and be diocesan chancellors. Since 1991 there have been two diocesan chancellors appointed by the dean. All these are assistant provincial court judges.[ citation needed ]
Original jurisdiction was formerly exercised by a separate provincial court, known as the Court of Audience.[ citation needed ]
The jurisdictions called "peculiars" at one time numbered nearly three hundred in England. They were originally introduced by the Pope for the purpose of curtailing a bishop's authority within his diocese. The dean of the Arches originally had jurisdiction over the thirteen London parishes mentioned above, but as the official principal was often absent as ambassador on the continent, the dean became his substitute,[ clarification needed ] and gradually the two offices were blended together. The judge of the Arches court was until 1874 appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury for the life of the holder. But by the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 the two archbishops were empowered to appoint a practising barrister or judge as described above. [3]
The official principal of the Arches court is the only ecclesiastical judge who is empowered to pass a sentence of deprivation against a clerk in holy orders. The appeals from the decisions of the Arches court were formerly made to the king in chancery, but they are now by statute addressed to the king in council, and they are heard before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. By an act of Henry VIII (Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Act 1532) the Arches court is empowered to hear, in the first instance, such suits as are sent up to it by letters of request from the consistory court of the bishops of the province of Canterbury, and it is further empowered to accept letters of request from the bishops of the province of Canterbury after they have issued commissions of inquiry under that statute, and the commissioners have made their report. [3] The Arches court was also the court of appeal from the consistory courts (of the bishops of the province) in all testamentary and matrimonial causes. The matrimonial jurisdiction was transferred to the secular courts by the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 and testamentary jurisdiction by later statute. [3]
The Provincial Registrar of Canterbury is appointed by the archbishop, after consultation with the Standing Committee of the General Synod. There may be a deputy provincial registrar. The provincial registrar acts as legal advisor to the archbishop, the registrar of the provincial court and the joint registrar of the General Synod.
The archives of the court have been held since 1953 at Lambeth Palace Library. They include items dating back to the early fourteenth century, but only survive with any consistency from 1660 onwards. [4] [5] [6]
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justin Welby, who was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013. Welby is the 105th person to hold the position, as part of a line of succession going back to the "Apostle to the English" Augustine of Canterbury, who was sent to the island by the church in Rome and arrived in 597. Welby succeeded Rowan Williams.
John Peckham was a Franciscan friar and Archbishop of Canterbury in the years 1279–1292.
An ecclesiastical court, also called court Christian or court spiritual, is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages, these courts had much wider powers in many areas of Europe than before the development of nation states. They were experts in interpreting canon law, a basis of which was the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian, which is considered the source of the civil law legal tradition.
A consistory court is a type of ecclesiastical court, especially within the Church of England where they were originally established pursuant to a charter of King William the Conqueror, and still exist today, although since about the middle of the 19th century consistory courts have lost much of their subject-matter jurisdiction. Each diocese in the Church of England has a consistory court.
Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, 400 yards south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the opposite bank.
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis.
A royal peculiar is a Church of England parish or church exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocese and the province in which it lies, and subject to the direct jurisdiction of the monarch.
The Dean of the Arches is the judge who presides in the provincial ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This court is called the Arches Court of Canterbury. It hears appeals from consistory courts and bishop's disciplinary tribunals in the province of Canterbury.
The Province of Canterbury, or less formally the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces which constitute the Church of England. The other is the Province of York.
The Diocese of Canterbury is a Church of England diocese covering eastern Kent which was founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury in 597. The diocese is centred on Canterbury Cathedral and is the oldest see of the Church of England.
The appointment of Church of England diocesan bishops follows a somewhat convoluted process, reflecting the church's traditional tendency towards compromise and over complex solutions, traditional ambiguity between hierarchy and democracy, and traditional role as a semi-autonomous state church.
The Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved is an appellate court within the hierarchy of ecclesiastical courts of the Church of England. Hearing cases involving church doctrine, ceremony, or ritual, the court has jurisdiction over both the Province of Canterbury and the Province of York. Appeals from the court are heard in a Commission of Review.
In canon law the confirmation of a bishop is the act by which the election of a new bishop receives the assent of the proper ecclesiastical authority.
The Court of Peculiars is one of the ecclesiastical courts of the Church of England. The court sits with a Dean, who is also the Dean of the Arches. The Registrars are the Joint Provincial Registrars. The Court of Peculiars deals with all legal matters from peculiar parishes in the province. Until 1545, ecclesiastical judges were required to have a degree in canon law; thereafter, they only needed a doctorate in civil law. Binding precedent was only introduced into the ecclesiastical courts in the nineteenth century.
The Chancery Court of York is an ecclesiastical court for the Province of York of the Church of England. It receives appeals from consistory courts of dioceses within the province. The presiding officer, the Official Principal and Auditor, has been the same person as the Dean of the Arches since the nineteenth century. The court comprises the auditor, two clergy, and two laity, as for the Court of the Arches in the Province of Canterbury. The registrar is distinct, however, and is at present Louise Connacher.
The Court of the Vicar-General of the Province of Canterbury is responsible for granting marriage licences in the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England. The Vicar-General is distinct from the Dean of the Arches. The Registrars are the Joint Provincial Registrars. A Vicar-General is appointed by the Archbishop, and by certain other bishops to assist with such matters as ecclesiastical visitations. The Vicar-General of the Diocese is distinct from the Vicar-General of the Province. The Registry of the Vicar-General of the Province is 16 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2LZ.
William Lyndwood was an English bishop of St. David's, diplomat and canonist, most notable for the publication of the Provinciale.
Within the Catholic Church, an ecclesiastical judge is an ecclesiastical person who possesses ecclesiastical jurisdiction either in general or in the strict sense. The judge presides over all baptized persons within their jurisdiction.
Charles John Ridgeway was an English churchman, the Bishop of Chichester from 1908 to 1919.
William Fleshmonger(? -1541/42), the son of a Winchester College tenant, was born in Hambledon, Hampshire. He was a Doctor of Canon Law and Dean of Chichester during the turmoil of the English Reformation.
