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Ecclesiastical - From: 1200 To: 1799

This page lists 44 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.

 
CASE XXII 1 H 7, 27 Sanctuary By All The Judges of England [1220] EngR 26; (1220-1623) Jenk 166; (1220) 145 ER 108 (B)
1220


Ecclesiastical, Crime
Sanctuary at conmion law does not lie for treason ; it lay for other offences. At this day all sanctuaries are abolshed by a statute made 1 Jac. 1, cap. 21. Nee veniam lesso numine casus habet.
[ Commonlii ]
 
Case XIX. 26 H 8, 23 By The Judges of Both Benches 14 H 8, 3 Stat De Glocester, Cap 11 Resceit, Averment Hob 35 [1220] EngR 356; (1220-1623) Jenk 200; (1220) 145 ER 135 (A)
1220


Ecclesiastical, Landlord and Tenant
A quare impedit is brought against the patron and incumbent to present to a rectory, of which the incumbent has made a lease for years to B. by deed ; in this case the patron of the incumbent confesses the action: the lessee for years is not relievable ; although he comes before judgment and shews his lease, and shews the title of his lessor, and the fraud and collusion : for a parson incumbent may, when he will, resign his rectory, and avoid his lease; and the absence of a parson for the space of 80 days in a year shall avoid the said lease ; also if he will suffer a judgment and recovery of it against him, such recovery shall avoid the said lease. The statute of Glocester is to be understood of leases made by such lessors as could not defeat sruch leases by their own acts.
[ Commonlii ]
 
Case VIII, 4 Jac 6 Co 61 B, &Amp;C Cr Jac 141, 166 Yelv 100 Dr and Stud Dial 2, Cap 36 1 Inst 135B 2 Roll Abr 521 [1220] EngR 508; (1220-1623) Jenk 282; (1220) 145 ER 203
1220


Ecclesiastical
For the lapse of churches void by deat, resignation or deprivation, for six months: the months shall be accounted according to the Kalendar, and not twenty-eight days to a month: for the statute of West 2, cap 5, speaks of half a year; and the right of the patron is to be favoured.
Judged and affirmed in error.
[ Commonlii ]
 
Case XCVIII 46 E 6 18 E 5, 46 24 E 3, 34 [1220] EngR 549; (1220-1623) Jenk 51; (1220) 145 ER 38 (A)
1220


Ecclesiastical

[ Commonlii ]
 
Dr Foster's Case, Concerning Recusants [1572] EngR 111; (1572-1616) 11 Co Rep 56; (1572) 77 ER 1222 (B)
1572


Ecclesiastical, Crime
By stat. 23 Eliz c1, it is enacted that “every person above the age of 16 years, which shall not repair to some church, chapel, or usual place of common prayer, & contrary to the tenor of a statute made, &c. for uniformity of common prayer, and being thereof lawfully convicted therefor, shall forfeit to the Queen’s Majesty for every month which the or she shall so forbear twenty pounds, &c." Upon an information upon this statute. Held: The party offending may be convicted in the same indictment or information preferred or exhibited against him for the penalty.
[ Commonlii ]
 
The Bishop of Salisbury's Case [1572] EngR 387; (1572-1616) 10 Co Rep 58; (1572) 77 ER 1013
1572


Ecclesiastical

[ Commonlii ]
 
De Libellis Famosis (1606) 5 Co. Rep. 125a
1606


Defamation, Ecclesiastical
(Star Chamber) it was an offence to defame the deceased Archbishop of Canterbury.

 
The Queen v Drury [1653] EngR 1986; (1653) Cro Eliz 723; (1653) 78 ER 957 (C)
1653


Ecclesiastical

[ Commonlii ]
 
Drury v Dominam Reginam [1653] EngR 644; (1653) Cro Eliz 839; (1653) 78 ER 1065 (B)
1653


Ecclesiastical

[ Commonlii ]

 
 Somerset v Markham; 1653 - [1653] EngR 1833; (1653) Cro Eliz 594; (1653) 78 ER 838 (A)
 
Smalwood and Two Others v The Bishop of Coventry and Marsh [1653] EngR 1808; (1653) Cro Eliz 141; (1653) 78 ER 398 (A)
1653


Ecclesiastical

[ Commonlii ]
 
Doctor Wood v Greenwood [1657] EngR 142; (1657) Het 135; (1657) 124 ER 402 (B)
1657


Land, Ecclesiastical
Claim for tithes
[ Commonlii ]

 
 Palmer v Warner; 1669 - [1669] EngR 366; (1669) Noy 91; (1669) 74 ER 1057 (C)
 
Taylor's Case (1676) 3 Keb 607; [1726] EngR 773; (1726) 1 Vent 293; (1726) 86 ER 189 (C)
1676

Sir Matthew Hale
Crime, Ecclesiastical
(Year?) An iriformatiori exhibited against him in the Crown Offce, for uttering of dlvers blasphemous expressions, horrible to hear, (viz.) that Jesus Christ was a bastard, a whoremaster, religion was a cheat ; and that he neither feared God, the devil, or man.
Beirig upon his trial, he acknowleclged the speaking of the words, except the word bastard ; and for the rest, he pretended to mean them in another sense than they ordinarily bear, (viz.) whoremaster, i.e. that Christ was master of the whore of Babylon, and such kind of evasions for the rest. But all the words being proved by several witnesses, he was found guilty.
And Hale said, that such kind of wicked blasphemous words were not only an offence to God and religion, but a crime against the laws, State and Government, and therefore punishable in this Court. For to say, religion is a cheat, is to dissolve all those obligations whereby the civil societies are preserved, arid that Christianity is parcel of the laws of England ; and therefore to reproach the Christian religion is to speak in subversion of the law.
Wherefore they gave judgment upon him, (viz.) to stand iri the pillory in three several places, and to pay one thousand marks fine, and to find sureties for his good behaviour during life.
An attack on Christian beliefs would undermine and endanger society: "For to say that religion is a cheat is to dissolve all those obligations whereby the civil societies are preserved and that Christianity is a parcel of the laws of England and therefore to reproach Christianity is to speak in subversion of the law." and "Contumelious reproaches of God and of the religion established are punishable here.... the Christian religion is part of the law itself".
1 Citers

[ Commonlii ]
 
Brown v Vermuden [1676] EngR 69; (1676) 1 Chan Cas 282; (1676) 22 ER 802 (A)
1676


Ecclesiastical
For Tithe of Lead Oar, a Modus Decimandi decred
[ Commonlii ]

 
 Gray v Dight; 1677 - (1677) 2 Show KB 144; (1677) 89 ER 848
 
Walwyn v Awberry (1677) 2 Mod 254
1677

Atkins J
Ecclesiastical
A lay rector brought an action for trespass because the local Bishop had sequestered his tithes on account of his failure to obey an admonition to repair the chancel of the parish church. The issue was whether sequestration was an available remedy. Held: It was not. It was agreed by all, that an impropriator is chargeable with the repairs of the chancel; but the charge was not personal but in regard of the profits of the impropriation.
1 Citers


 
The Queen v The Bishop of London And Scot [1687] EngR 826; (1687) 1 Leo 40; (1687) 74 ER 37
1687


Ecclesiastical
Quaere Impedit. Office Trove. Scire facias
[ Commonlii ]
 
Britton v Standish (1704) 90 ER 976; (1704) 6 Mod Rep 188; (1704) 3 Salk 88; (1704) Holt KB 141
1704

Holt CJ
Ecclesiastical
It is the Ecclesiastical court which has jurisdiction to proceed under the Act against a parishioner for not attending church on Sundays an not receiving the sacrament at Easter. The stautute sets this out explicitly.
Holt CJ set out the rights of parishioners over their parish church, saying: "Parishes were instituted for the ease and benefit of the people, and not of the parson, that they might have a place certain to repair to when they thought convenient and a parson from whom they had right to receive instruction."
Act of Uniformity 1662 14

 
Rex v Read (1708) Fortescue 98
1708

Holt CJ
Defamation, Ecclesiastical
A prosecution for the publication of obscene matter was an issue for the ecclesiastical courts.

 
James Greenshields, Clerk v The Lord Provost and Magistrates of The City of Edinburgh [1711] UKHL Robertson_12; (1711) Robertson 12
1 Mar 1711
HL

Scotland, Ecclesiastical
An appeal competent, though objection made that it implicated the sentence of a presbytery.
Proceedings against an episcopal minister, before the Toleration Act, 10 Ann. c. 7. who had been imprisoned for exercising his function, reversed on appeal.
[ Bailii ]
 
Kilsyth, Paterson of Bannockburn, Murray of Touchadam and others Heritors of The Parish of St Ninians In The Shire of Stirling [1713] UKHL Robertson_65; (1713) Robertson 65
13 Jun 1713
HL

Ecclesiastical
Reasons sufficient to reduce a decree of erection of a new parish. - The reasons of reduction ought to have been advised before ordering a new proof and perambulation.
[ Bailii ]
 
Innes, Provost, Mackenzie, Falconer, and Charles, Baillies of The Burgh of Elgin, and Sexton v The Ministers of The Church of Elgin, Her Majesty' Advocate, John Dundas [1713] UKHL Robertson_69; (1713) Robertson 69
3 Jul 1713
HL

Ecclesiastical
The Magistrates of Elgin, being pannelled and convicted under the acts 1695, c. 22., and 1711, c 7. of an intrusion into the Parish Church, and a fine imposed upon them, the Judgment is reverted.
[ Bailii ]
 
Robert Lord Blantyre, and George Season of Barnes Esq; v Mr John Currie, Minister of Haddington [1714] UKHL Robertson_88; (1714) Robertson 88
1 Jun 1714
HL

Ecclesiastical, Scotland
Teird Court, Minister's Stipend. - A Parish bring disjoined the stipend formerly modified upon the whole, a allocates upon the original remaining parish, notwithstanding the use of payment had remained for so years, and the same after the disjunction as before.
It was not necessary to call the heritors of the new parish, as parties.
It was no sufficient defence, that the stipend still remaining was above the minimum setteled by the parliament.
A stipend is objected to as above the maximum of 1633, c. 19. but this stipend is allocated and decreed to be paid.
[ Bailii ]
 
Price, CF' v Pratt et al [1729] EngR 365; (1729) Bunb 273; (1729) 145 ER 671 (C)
13 Nov 1729


Ecclesiastical

[ Commonlii ]
 
Dominus Rex v Woolston [1732] EngR 87; (1732) Fitzg 64; (1732) 94 ER 655 (B)
1732

Raymond CJ
Crime, Ecclesiastical
The defendant having publish'd several discourses on the miracles of Christ, in which he maintain'd that the same are not to be taken in a literal sense, but that the whole relation of the life and miracles of our Lord Christ in the New Testament, is but an allegory, several informations were brought against him, in which it was laid, that the defendant published those discourses, with an intent to vilify and subvert the Christian religion ; and he being found guilty, Mr. Worley mov'd in arrest of judgment that those discouses did not amount to a libel upon Christianity, since the Scriptures are not deny'd, but oonstrued and taken in a different meaning from that they are usually understood in ; and by the same reason that making such a construction should be punishable by the common law, so it would have been punishable by the cornmon law, before the Reformation, to have taken the doctrine of transubstantiattion allegorically ; now as the common law has continued the same since the Reformstion that it was before, whatever was punishable by it before, continues so likewise since the Reformation ; so that this being not now a crime by the common law, nor was it before the Reformation, when it was held literally a part of Christianity ; neither is the allegory made by the defendant, by the same reason, a crime puniishable by the common law ; so that if this be a crime, it must be of ecclesiastical conusance ; and it may be of a very dangerous tendency to encourage prosecutions of this nature in the Temporal Courts, since it may give occasion to the carrying on of proseccutions for a rnere difference in opinion, which is tolerated by law. He urg'd, that the defendant ehould have been proceeded against upon the stat. 10 W, 3, cap. 32, by which, for denying Christianity, the first offence incapacitates the offender to hold any offiice, and c. so that this Act having chalk'd out a special method of punishment, and being made for the benefit of the subject, the defendant should be proceeded against according to its direction ; then he offer'd, that though it should be admitted, the discourses did amount to a libel upon Christianity, yet the common law has not cognisance of suob an offence : but it being opposed, that this should now be made a question, it having been settled in Taylor's Case 1 Vent. 293, and in other instances 'twas answer'd by Raymond Chief Justice : ~hL~~st~a~iity in general is parcel of the common law of En land, and therefore to be protected by it ; now whatever strikes at the very root the opin~on of my Lord Hale in Tmjlor's andse: E663 so that to say, an attem~to subvert the est~b~~~d religiou is not ~utiishab~e by those laws upon which it is ~~blish'd, is an absurdity j if this were an etitirely new case, X shouid not think it a proper question to be made: I would have it taken rrotice of, that we do not meddle with any differences in opinion, and that we interpose otrly where the very root of ~h~stianity it seif is struck at, as it plainly is by this allegorical scheme, the Kew Testament, and the whole relatiori of the life and miracles of Christ being denied; and who can find this alIeg~r~. As to the 9 8 10 W. 3, tis' true, where a statute introduces a new law and ~1i3icts a new punj~h~ent, it must be followed ; but where an Act of ParIiame~~t only inflicts a new ~unish~ent for an off~~~ce at common law, it re~ains an o~et~ce still pu~~~shable aa it wag before the Act; so 'tis in a case of forgery, which notw~~~stand~I~g the 5 Eliz, remains still pun~shab~e, asit was before that statute ; and with him agreed the whole Court. of 8 hristianity, tends ~anifestly to a dissolution of the civil goveriiment, and so was 13, EASTWICK ANT, CORE. Process sued out in the vacation. Vid. 1 Baund. 299.
1 Cites

[ Commonlii ]
 
Dr Sands's Case [1738] EngR 294; (1688-1710, 1738) Holt KB 131; (1738) 90 ER 971 (C)
1738


Ecclesiastical

1 Citers

[ Commonlii ]
 
Sir David Cunningham, Bart v Wm Wardrobe; Mr John Warden; James Waddel; Mr John Scot; George White; William Meek, and Others, Heritors and Inhabitants of The Parish of Whitburn [1762] UKHL 6_Paton_734; (1762) 6 Paton 734
20 Dec 1762
HL

Ecclesiastical
Church Patronage - Right to Present. -
The parish of Livingstone, of which the appellant was patron, was large; and it occurred to some of the heritors and inhabitants, that a new church, and a division of the parish would be a desirable object. They subscribed funds to purchase lands, and to mortify the same for the support of a minister. The deed of foundation vested the management of these, and the election of the minister in the heritors and kirk-session of Whitburn, and excluding the patron therefrom. The parish was divided, and a new erection obtained under the name of the parish of Whitburn. The patron had given a qualified consent to this erection, reserving his own rights. In an action at the patron's instance, held that he had no right to present the minister, or to the vacant stipends. Reversed in the House of Lords, and held him to have right to both.
[ Bailii ]
 
Walker, Bailie of Edinburgh, Stuart, Hogg, Gibson, and Others v Drummond, Lord Provost, and Others, Magistrates and Councillors of Edinburgh [1764] UKHL 6_Paton_761; (1764) 6 Paton 761
13 Mar 1764
HL

Ecclesiastical
Patronage of the City Churches. - The rights of presentation to the parish churches of the city of Edinburgh belong to the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council, as patrons thereof; and the Presbytery of Edinburgh, by their several Kirk Sessions, has no voice in the election or presentation to any vacancies in the parish churches within the city.
[ Bailii ]
 
George Wishart, Dd, and All The Other Ministers of The Gospel In Edinburgh v The Magistrates of Edinburgh [1766] UKHL 2_Paton_118; (1766) 2 Paton 118
17 Feb 1766
HL

Scotland, Ecclesiastical
Jurisdiction of Court of Teinds - Stipend.- Held the Court of Teinds has no jurisdiction to augment the stipend of ministers out of any other funds than the tithes of the parish, where the minister serves the cure, and, therefore, that they had no jurisdiction to augment the stipends of the ministers within the city of Edinburgh,
[ Bailii ]
 
Rev Hepburn v Charles, Earl of Portmore [1770] UKHL 2_Paton_218
12 Mar 1770
HL

Ecclesiastical
Right of Patronage.-
On a vacancy occurring in the parish of Aberlady, the Crown and Lord Portmore respectively claimed the right to present. Lord Portmore founded his claim upon a disposition granted by the titular Bishop of Dunkeld, in 1589, (to whose see Aberlady was attached, as one of his mensal benefices.) which contained conveyance of the right of patronage: Held, that though such alienations were prohibited at that time by the act 1585, and the church benefices annexed to the Crown in 1587, and though no possession followed, by exercising the right to present on this title, yet Lord Portmore had best right to the patronage in question, which could not be lost by non utendo; and which had been ratified in Parliament in 1669.
[ Bailii ]
 
John Wilkie of Foulden, Esq v Samuel Simpson of Nunlands, and The Rev Mr John Buchanan, Minister of The Parish of Foulden [1770] UKHL 2_Paton_222
14 Mar 1770
HL

Scotland, Ecclesiastical
Grass Glebe.-
In the selection of any individual lands, out of which to design a grass glebe to the minister-(1.) Held, that kirk lands, though for sometime turned into culture as arable land, were to be designed in preference to other kirk lands in pasture at a greater distance from the manse. Also, (2.) Held, that the minister had a right to insist on such designation, though the proprietor of the arable land had agreed, in a division of a common within the parish, to give the minister the right of pasture, for one horse and two cows, in lieu of grass glebe, and the minister had enjoyed this right on the part of the common allocated to that heritor, for time immemorial.
[ Bailii ]
 
Kingston's (Duchess) Case (1776) 1 East PC 468; (1776) 20 ST 336
1776


Ecclesiastical, Estoppel, Legal Professions
The judgment of a court of concurrent jurisdiction, directly upon the point, is as a plea, a bar, or as evidence, conclusive between the same parties coming incidentaly in question in another court for a different purpose. The principle of litigation privilege is restricted to legal advice.
1 Citers



 
 The Duchess of Kingston's Case; 1-Apr-1776 - [1776] EngR 16; (1776) 1 Leach 146; (1776) 168 ER 175; [1775] EngR 54; (1775) Amb 756; (1775) 27 ER 487; (1776) 2 Smith's LC, 13th ed 644
 
Rev Mr Thomas Tait v Mr George Skene Keith, Minister, and Others [1778] UKHL 2_Paton_447
30 Mar 1778
HL

Scotland, Ecclesiastical
Patron - Competing Presentations - Mandant's Powers - Implied Recal.-
Where a patron, residing in a foreign country, had appointed commissioners, with powers to present to vacant churches, the latter presented a party a day before the patron himself presented another party: Held, the presentation by the commissioners, in virtue of the powers delegated to them, was good, and to be preferred to the patron's own presentation, and that the right of patronage may be exercised by delegates so appointed.
[ Bailii ]
 
Rev Dr Johnstone, Minister, North Leith, and Gladstone, Treasurer, and Strong, Their Lessee v Chalmers, and Watson, Cooper [1781] UKHL 2_Paton_559; (1781) 2 Paton 559
6 Apr 1781
HL

Ecclesiastical, Taxes - Other
Teind Fish - Duty - Parole - Usage.- The minister of the parish of North Leith, by virtue of grants, has a right to exact a duty on all fish brought into the ports of Leith and Newhaven. Action being raised to enforce this right, held by the Court of Session, (1.) That the minister had no right to the tithe of fish brought into Leith and Newhaven, which were meant to be again exported, and, (2.) Nor to the tithe of fish which had paid teind where they were caught. In the House of Lords, affirmed as to the first point, but reversed as to the second; upon the ground, that a practice of so exacting teind on all fish brought into Leith and Newhaven, without distinction, was established by the proof led in explanation of the extent of the right.
[ Bailii ]
 
Charles Mercer, Esq, of Letbindy v Rev Mr Williamson [1786] UKHL 3 - Paton - 43
17 Mar 1786
HL

Ecclesiastical
Manse - Building or Repairing. - Held, where the presbytery had ordered an old manse to be pulled down, and a new one built, that they were not precluded from doing so, though the old manse might be repaired at a less expense than the cost of a new one; and also held, that they were not limited by the act 1663 to the sum of andpound;1000 Scots, (andpound;83. 6 s. 8 d.) but entitled to go beyond it, whatever the expense of building might be.
[ Bailii ]
 
Rev Mr Mitchell, Minister of The United Parishes of Tingwall, Whitness, and Co v Officers of State [1789] UKHL 3 - Paton - 140
22 Jun 1789
HL

Ecclesiastical
Augmentation of Stipend - Jurisdiction. - Held, that the Court of Session, granting once an augmentation to a minister of the parish, is not precluded, as Commissioners of Teinds, from afterwards granting a second augmentation,-this being within the jurisdiction and powers of modification conferred on the Court.
[ Bailii ]
 
Evans v Evans [1790] EWCC J45; 161 ER 466; (1790) 1 Hag Con 35
2 Jul 1790
ConC
Sir William Scott
Family, Ecclesiastical
The court considered a petition for divorce for cruelty. Sir William Scott said: "For though in particular cases the repugnance of the law to dissolve the obligations of matrimonial cohabitation may operate with great severity upon individuals; yet it must be carefully remembered that the general happiness of the married life is secured by its indissolubility. When people understand that they must live together, except for a very few reasons known to the law, they learn to soften by mutual accommodation that yoke which they know they cannot shake off; they become good husbands and good wives from the necessity of remaining husbands and wives; for necessity is a powerful master in teaching the duties which it imposes. If it were once understood that upon mutual disgust married persons might be legally separated, many couples who now pass through the world with mutual comfort, with attention to their common offspring and to the moral order of civil society, might have been at this moment living in a state of mutual unkindness, in a state of estrangement from their common offspring, and in a state of the most licentious and unreserved immorality. In this case, as in many others, the happiness of some individuals must be sacrificed to the greater and more general good. "
[ Bailii ]

 
 Farmer v Shereman; 1792 - [1792] EngR 808; (1792) Hob 248; (1792) 80 ER 394 (C)
 
The Duke of Portland v Bingham [1792] EngR 2929; (1792) 1 Hag Con 157; (1792) 161 ER 509
26 Jan 1792


Ecclesiastical
Licence to preach in Quebec chapel in Mary-le-bone not allowed to be impeached, by proceedings on the part of the impropriator, in a civil suit - he not shewing an interest that would entitle him to maintain such a suit.
[ Commonlii ]
 
Hawkin's Case [1794] EngR 806; (1794) 5 Mod 389; (1794) 87 ER 723
1794


Land, Ecclesiastical
If tbere be a special custom in a parish, that the adorning of the inside of the chancel of the church shall be done at the charge of the owners arid occupiers of ancient houses, yet they are not bound by such a custom both to ornament and to repair the chancel ; for the parson is bound to repair of common right, and the custom does not release him: nor can the owners and occupiers of mills or racks be rated towards such ornaments ; for where a temporal inheritance is to be charged by a particular custom the custom must be strictly pursued.
[ Commonlii ]
 
Dr Sands's Case [1795] EngR 1574; (1795) 1 Salk 145; (1795) 91 ER 134 (C)
1795


Crime, Ecclesiastical
Certiorari to remove conviction of recusancy denied
1 Cites

1 Citers

[ Commonlii ]
 
Sir George Sands's Case [1795] EngR 3113; (1795) 3 Salk 22; (1795) 91 ER 668 (A)
1795


Ecclesiastical

1 Cites

1 Citers

[ Commonlii ]
 
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