Privilegium fori

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The privilegium fori (Latin for "privilege of the (legal) forum") is a generic term for legal privileges to be tried in a particular court or type of court of law. [1]

Typically, it is an application of the principle of trial by one's peers, either by such a jury or at least by a specific court from that social segment, such as a soldier by a court martial, a cleric by an ecclesiastical court. [1]

Canon law

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Privilegium fori used to be one of the ecclesiastical privileges in the canon law of the Catholic Church: a member of the clergy received a special tribunal in civil and criminal causes before an ecclesiastical judge. [1] [2] This privilege was based on provisions in Roman law, which worked their way into church law and received preliminary codification in Gratian's Decretum, though later popes continued to adjust the terms of the privilege. [3]

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Canon law is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law, or operational policy, governing the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the individual national churches within the Anglican Communion. The way that such church law is legislated, interpreted and at times adjudicated varies widely among these three bodies of churches. In all three traditions, a canon was originally a rule adopted by a church council; these canons formed the foundation of canon law.

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In English law, the benefit of clergy was originally a provision by which clergymen could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead in an ecclesiastical court under canon law. Various reforms limited the scope of this legal arrangement to prevent its abuse, including branding of a thumb upon a first use, to limit number of invocations for some. Eventually the benefit of clergy evolved into a legal fiction in which first-time offenders could receive lesser sentences for some crimes. The legal mechanism was abolished in 1827 with the passage of the Criminal Law Act 1827

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Crimen sollicitationis is the title of a 1962 document ("instruction") of the Holy Office codifying procedures to be followed in cases of priests or bishops of the Catholic Church accused of having used the sacrament of Penance to make sexual advances to penitents. It repeated, with additions, the contents of an identically named instruction issued in 1922 by the same office.

Defrocking, unfrocking, or laicization of clergy is the removal of their rights to exercise the functions of the ordained ministry. It may be grounded on criminal convictions, disciplinary problems, or disagreements over doctrine or dogma, but may also be done at their request for personal reasons, such as running for civil office, taking over a family business, declining health or old age, desire to marry against the rules for clergy in a particular church, or an unresolved dispute. The form of the procedure varies according to the Christian denomination concerned. The term defrocking implies forced laicization for misconduct, while laicization is a neutral term, applicable also when clergy have requested to be released from their ordination vows.

Decretals are letters of a pope that formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law of the Catholic Church.

<i>Decretum Gratiani</i>

The Decretum Gratiani, also known as the Concordia discordantium canonum or Concordantia discordantium canonum or simply as the Decretum, is a collection of canon law compiled and written in the 12th century as a legal textbook by the jurist known as Gratian. It forms the first part of the collection of six legal texts, which together became known as the Corpus Juris Canonici. It was used by canonists of the Roman Catholic Church until Pentecost 1918, when the first Code of Canon Law, promulgated by Pope Benedict XV on 27 May 1917, obtained legal force.

High, middle and low justices are notions dating from Western feudalism to indicate descending degrees of judiciary power to administer justice by the maximal punishment the holders could inflict upon their subjects and other dependents.

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Incardination is the formal term in the Catholic Church for a clergyman being under a bishop or other ecclesiastical superior. It is also sometimes used to refer to laity who may transfer to another part of the church, from say the Western Latin Church to an Eastern Catholic Church or from a territorial diocese to one of the three personal ordinariates for former Anglicans.

The canon law of the Catholic Church is the system of laws and legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regulate its external organization and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics toward the mission of the Church. It was the first modern Western legal system and is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West, while the unique traditions of Oriental canon law govern the 23 Eastern Catholic particular churches sui iuris.

A nomocanon is a collection of ecclesiastical law, consisting of the elements from both the Civil law and the Canon law. Nomocanons form part of the Oriental canon law of the Eastern Catholic Churches, and are also used by the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The Corpus Juris Canonici is a collection of significant sources of the canon law of the Catholic Church that was applicable to the Latin Church. It was replaced by the 1917 Code of Canon Law which went into effect in 1918. The 1917 Code was later replaced by the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the codification of canon law currently in effect for the Latin Church. In 1990, Oriental canon law was codified in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, which is currently in effect for the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Pierre Bertrand was a French Cardinal, theologian, and canonist.

"Appeal as from an abuse" is a legal term applied in the canon law of the Catholic Church, meaning originally a legal appeal as recourse to the civil forum (court) against the usurpation by the ecclesiastical forum of the rights of civil jurisdiction. It could mean a recourse to the ecclesiastical forum against the usurpation by the civil forum of the rights of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

In the canon law of the Catholic Church, excommunication, the principal and severest censure, is a medicinal, spiritual penalty that deprives the guilty Christian of all participation in the common blessings of ecclesiastical society. Being a penalty, it presupposes guilt; and being the most serious penalty that the Catholic Church can inflict, it naturally supposes a very grave offense.

The legal history of the Catholic Church is the history of the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West, much later than Roman law but predating the evolution of modern European civil law traditions. The history of Latin canon law can be divided into four periods: the jus antiquum, the jus novum, the jus novissimum and the Code of Canon Law. In relation to the Code, history can be divided into the jus vetus and the jus novum. Eastern canon law developed separately.

In the canon law of the Catholic Church, ecclesiastical privileges are the privileges enjoyed by the clergy. Their scope varied over time.

For the legal system of ecclesiastical canons, see Canon law and Canon law.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Borg-Muscat, David (1933). "Reassessing the September 1775 Rebellion: A Case of Lay Participation or a 'Rising of the Priests'" (PDF). Melita Historica. 3 (2): 242–243. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 April 2016.
  2. Sägmüller, Johannes Baptist (1911). "Ecclesiastical Privileges". New York City: Robert Appleton Company (Catholic Encyclopedia). Archived from the original on 7 April 2016.
  3. Duggan, Anne J. (2017). "Clerical Exemption in Canon Law from Gratian to the Decretals". Medieval Worlds. medieval worlds (Volume 6. 2017): 78–100. doi: 10.1553/medievalworlds_no6_2017s78 . ISSN   2412-3196.