Secular arm

Last updated

Secular arm, in ecclesiastical law, refers to the legal authority of the civil power, the State, or any lay authority, invoked by the Church to punish offenders in cases properly belonging to the jurisdiction of the Church. This was considered the remedy in cases where excommunication was deemed insufficient and that sterner measures were required to secure obedience to the law. [1]

Contents

The secular arm as a means by which lay power intervenes in ecclesiastical cases had two types: sought and unsought by the Church. [2] In the Middle Ages especially in Inquisition trials for heresy, or grave immorality, ecclesiastical courts delivered convicted clerical and lay offenders over to the secular arm to administer severe capital punishments. The phrase "relaxed to the secular arm" was used by the Spanish Inquisition to describe the handover of the condemned heretic. On the other hand, an individual could seek a civil court to interfere - invoking the secular arm - on account of a miscarriage of justice on the part of church authorities. [2]

The medieval Latin phrase 'brachium seculare' was translated first into late Middle English. [3]

Background

Introduced circa 1180–1250 at the time of the Albigensian Crusade, the church inquisitors delivered a Cathar heretic, or any heretic, to the secular arm, to be burnt at the stake. Under canon law church tribunals had no jurisdiction to impose penalties involving mutilation or death. [4] The law, however, provided that the judge of a common law court had the right to invoke the secular arm to address the culpability of an individual, who was a subject to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. [5] Notably the contrary circumstance of appeal by individuals to the secular authorities to interfere with, or hinder, the process of ecclesiastical jurisdiction was until recently punished in the Roman Catholic Church by excommunication. [6]

Sources

Catholic Culture The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Religion

Related Research Articles

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 four 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.

Excommunication Censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community

Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose of the institutional act is to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular, those of being in communion with other members of the congregation, and of receiving the sacraments.

Inquisition System of tribunals enforcing Catholic orthodoxy

The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, but that cases of repeat unrepentant heretics were handed over to the secular courts, which generally resulted in execution or life imprisonment. The Inquisition had its start in the 12th-century Kingdom of France, with the aim of combating religious deviation, particularly among the Cathars and the Waldensians. The inquisitorial courts from this time until the mid-15th century are together known as the Medieval Inquisition. Other groups investigated during the Medieval Inquisition, which primarily took place in France and Italy, include the Spiritual Franciscans, the Hussites, and the Beguines. Beginning in the 1250s, inquisitors were generally chosen from members of the Dominican Order, replacing the earlier practice of using local clergy as judges.

Medieval Inquisition System of tribunals enforcing Catholic orthodoxy

The Medieval Inquisition was a series of Inquisitions from around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition (1184–1230s) and later the Papal Inquisition (1230s). The Medieval Inquisition was established in response to movements considered apostate or heretical to Roman Catholicism, in particular Catharism and Waldensians in Southern France and Northern Italy. These were the first movements of many inquisitions that would follow.

Anathema, in common usage, is something or someone detested or shunned. In its other main usage, it is a formal excommunication. The latter meaning, its ecclesiastical sense, is based on New Testament usage. In the Old Testament, anathema was a creature or object set apart for sacrificial offering and thus removed from ordinary use and destined instead for destruction.

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 the United Kingdom in 1827 with the passage of the Criminal Law Act 1827.

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.

In the canon law of the Catholic Church, a distinction is made between the internal forum, where an act of governance is made without publicity, and the external forum, where the act is public and verifiable. In canon law, internal forum, the realm of conscience, is contrasted with the external or outward forum; thus, a marriage might be null and void in the internal forum, but binding outwardly, i.e., in the external forum, for want of judicial proof to the contrary.

Constitutions of Clarendon Legislation passed by Henry II restricting Church power

The Constitutions of Clarendon were a set of legislative procedures passed by Henry II of England in 1164. The Constitutions were composed of 16 articles and represent an attempt to restrict ecclesiastical privileges and curb the power of the Church courts and the extent of papal authority in England. In the anarchic conditions of Henry II's predecessor, Stephen, the church had extended its jurisdiction by taking advantage of the weakness of royal authority. The Constitutions were claimed to restore the law as it was observed during the reign of Henry I (1100–1135).

De heretico comburendo was a law passed by Parliament under King Henry IV of England in 1401, punishing heretics with burning at the stake. This law was one of the strictest religious censorship statutes ever enacted in England. In March 1401 William Sawtrey became the first Lollard to be burned.

Ecclesiastical jurisdiction signifies jurisdiction by church leaders over other church leaders and over the laity.

Latae sententiae and ferendae sententiae are ways sentences are imposed in the Catholic Church in its canon law. A latae sententiae penalty is a penalty that is inflicted ipso facto, automatically, by force of the law itself, at the very moment a law is contravened. A ferendae sententiae penalty is a penalty that is inflicted on a guilty party only after it has been pronounced by a third party.

Heresy in Christianity Formal denial or doubt of a Christian doctrine

Heresy in Christianity denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith as defined by one or more of the Christian churches.

Ad abolendam was a decretal and bull of Pope Lucius III, written at Verona and issued 4 November 1184. It was issued after the Council of Verona settled some jurisdictional differences between the Papacy and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. The document prescribes measures to uproot heresy and sparked the efforts which culminated in the Albigensian Crusade and the Inquisitions. Its chief aim was the complete abolition of Christian heresy.

"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 also mean a recourse to the ecclesiastical forum against the usurpation by the civil forum of the rights of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

Heresy Belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established belief or customs

Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religious teachings, but is also used of views strongly opposed to any generally accepted ideas. A heretic is a proponent of heresy.

In the canon law of the Catholic Church, excommunication, the principal and severest censure, is a penalty that excludes the guilty Catholic of all participation in church life. Being a penalty, it presupposes guilt and being the most serious penalty that the Catholic Church can nowadays inflict, it supposes a grave offense. The excommunicated person is basically considered as an exile from the Church, for a time at least, in the sight of ecclesiastical authority.

The Venetian Inquisition, formally the Holy Office, was the tribunal established jointly by the Venetian government and the Roman Catholic Church to repress heresy throughout the Republic of Venice. The inquisition also intervened in cases of sacrilege, apostasy, prohibited books, superstition, and witchcraft. It was established in the 16th-century and was abolished in 1797.

Pascite gregem Dei is an apostolic constitution issued by Pope Francis on 1 June 2021 which reforms Book VI of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. It took effect on 8 December 2021.

References

  1. ↑ Helmholz, R. H. (2004). The Oxford History of the Laws of England: The Canon law and ecclesiastical jurisdiction from 597 to the 1640s. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 111. ISBN   0198258976.
  2. 1 2 Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, Elizabeth A. (2005). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1488. ISBN   9780192802903.
  3. ↑ The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Religion
  4. ↑ Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages p.260
  5. ↑ Hartmann, Wilfried; Pennington, Kenneth (2016). The History of Courts and Procedure in Medieval Canon Law. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press of America. p. 386. ISBN   9780813229041.
  6. ↑ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.)p.532


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.