ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS

The Church or Ecclesiastical Courts were very active before the Civil War. Courts were regularly held in each Diocese, to carry out the business, which had to be non-secular.There were two types of 'Act', Office and Instance, which the Courts dealt with. Instance cases were instigated by one or more people against one or more defendants. The cases mostly concerned disputes about Tithes (often it was the Vicar or Rector who was the 'complaining' party, Testamentary disputes when the wishes of the deceased person were not clear, or malpractice was alleged when the Will was made, cases about Defamation, usually with allegations of a sexual nature, or disputes about seating arrangements and rights in the Parish Church.Office cases were taken up as a result of 'Visitations' by Church officials to each parish, and Churchwardens had to make 'presentments' each yeare about the conduct of parishioners and Vicar, or the fabric of the Church buildings. Other people, including the Vicar or Rector, could lay a complaint against another. Matters which the Court could deal with were relatively carefully defined so as not to conflict with the secular Courts. The usual range included the following:

  1. The conduct of the Vicar or Rector in carrying out his duties.
  2. The fabric of the Church (parishioners responsibility), Chancel (patron of the living), Rectory (the incumbent).
  3. The conduct of the Services, including Sermons, Catechising etc.
  4. Provision of equipment and furnishings in the Church e.g. the proper Bible.
  5. Behaviour in the Churchyard by the parishioners.
  6. Behaviour of the parishioners to one another i.e. no defamation.
  7. Sexual conduct of the parishioners.
  8. Monitoring of the parishioners to ensure no working on the Sabbath.
  9. Reporting of any non-attendance at 'divine service'.
  10. Reporting of any Recusants, especially, before the Civil War, Roman Catholics .
  11. Failure to prove Wills etc.
  12. Clandestine Marriages.
The task of the Court was to restore the person concerned to the paths of righteousness. This was done in a number of ways, the least severe being a warning about future conduct. If the charge was admitted, often a 'penance' was imposed, which sometimes was commuted for a monetary fine put to the 'pious uses' of the Church. If a person persistently failed to appear at the Court, he would be excommunicated, and subsequently at a later Court had to ask for forgiveness. The Deanery of Stottesdon was in the Diocese of Hereford and a fine series of Act Books have survived, detailing the Office cases and the result. These are mostly in Latin, though a description of the offence was often in English. The Latin can be off-putting but it is important to realise that most of it consisted of a series of set formulae which documented the progress of the Case and the outcome.