The Rise and Fall of the English Ecclesiastical Courts, 1500–1860

Tracing the history of growth and then the slow disappearance of English law and social regulation.

R. B. Outhwaite (Author), Richard H. Helmholz (Foreword by)

9780521869386, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 January 2007

212 pages
22.2 x 14.5 x 1.7 cm, 0.412 kg

'This stimulating concise introduction will be essential reading for anybody interested in the history of the church courts.' Journal of Ecclesiastical History

The first history of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in England that covers the period up to the removal of principal subjects inherited from the Middle Ages. Probate, marriage and divorce, tithes, defamation, and disciplinary prosecutions involving the laity are all covered. All disappeared from the church's courts during the mid-nineteenth century, and were taken over by the royal courts. The book traces the steps and reasons - large and small - by which this occurred.

Abbreviations
Table of parliamentary statutes
1. The ecclesiastical courts: structures and procedures
2. The business of the courts, 1500–1640
3. Tithe causes
4. Wills and testamentary causes
5. Defamation
6. Matrimonial litigation and marriage licenses
7. Office causes
8. The roots of expansion and critical voices
9. Charting decline, 1640–1830
10. Explaining decline
11. The Bills of 1733–1734
12. Snips and repairs: small steps to reform, 1753–1813
13. Royal commissions and early fruits, 1815–1832
14. Reform frustrated
15. Reforms thick and fast, 1854–1860.

Subject Areas: Educational: History [YQH], Legal history [LAZ]