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Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in England.

The Statute of Appeals takes away appeals to Rome in causes testamentary and matrimonial and in regard to right of tithes, oblations and obventions. A final appeal is given to the archbishop of the particular province; but in causes touching the king a final appeal is given to the Upper House of Convocation of the province. The statute is aimed at appeals; but the words used in it concerning "citations and all other processes" are wide enough to take away also the "original" jurisdiction of the pope. No appeal was yet given to the crown. Canterbury, York, Armagh, Dublin, Cashel and Tuam are put in the place of Rome. The English and Irish provinces are treated as self-contained. All ends there.

Finally, the Clergy Discipline Act 1892 creates yet a new court of first instance for the trial of clerical offences against morality in the shape of a consistory court, which is not the old court of that name, but is to comprehend the chancellor and five assessors , with equal power with the chancellor on questions of fact. In many instances the conviction of a temporal court is made conclusive on the bishop without further trial. In regard to moral offences, jurisdiction under this act is exclusive. But it only applies to clerks holding preferment. Under all these three acts there is a final appeal to the judicial committee of the privy council.

Dilapidations are now not made matters of suit before the court, but of administrative action by the bishop.

The existing ecclesiastical jurisdiction in England is therefore now confined to the following points. Discipline of the clergy. Discipline of the laity in respect of sexual offences as already stated. Control of lay office-bearers, church-wardens, sidesmen, organists, parish clerks, sextons. Protection of the fabrics of churches, of churchyards, ornaments, fittings, &c., sanctioning by licence or faculty any additions or alterations, and preventing or punishing unauthorized dealings by proceedings on the criminal side of the courts. Claims by individuals to particular seats in church or special places of sepulture. Rare cases of personal or special tithes, offerings or pensions claimed by incumbents of benefices. In the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands courts Christian have now jurisdiction substantially as in England. In Jersey and in Guernsey there are courts of first instance with appeal to the bishop of Winchester. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Ireland was as in England till the Irish Church was disestablished in 1869 by 32 & 33 Vict. c. 42.

Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in non-established churches.

Into the British-settled colonies no bishops were sent till 1787; and consequently there were no regular courts Christian. The bishop of London was treated as the diocesan bishop of the colonists in North America; and in order to provide for testamentary and matrimonial jurisdiction it was usual in the letters patent appointing the governor of a colony to name him ordinary. In New York state there is still a court called the surrogates court, surrogate being the regular name for a deputy ecclesiastical judge. In Lower Canada, by treaty, the Roman Catholic Church remained established.

Throughout the United States, whatever may have been the position in some of them before their independence, the Church has now no position recognized by the State, but is just a body of believers whose relations are governed by contract and with whom ecclesiastical jurisdiction is consensual.

Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Scotland.

The Presbyterian courts thus created are arranged in ascending order:--

The Scots ecclesiastical courts are entitled to the assistance of the secular courts to carry out their jurisdiction by "due assistance." Within the limits of their jurisdiction they are supreme. But if a court go outside its jurisdiction, or refuse to exercise powers conferred on it by law, the civil court may "reduce" the sentence and award damages to the party aggrieved.

Protestant continental European states.

With the Reformation in the 16th century, Church courts properly speaking disappeared from the non-episcopal religious communities which were established in Holland, in the Protestant states of Switzerland and of Germany, and in the then non-episcopal countries of Denmark and Norway.

Discipline over ministers and other office-bearers was exercised by administrative methods in the form of trials before consistories or synods. To this extent ecclesiastical jurisdiction is still exercised in these countries. Consistories and synods have exercised discipline of a penitential kind over their lay members; but in later times their censures have generally ceased to carry temporal consequences. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction on the civil side for the trial of causes soon disappeared. Heresy has been treated as a crime to be tried in and punished by the ordinary courts of the country, as in the cases of Servetus and Grotius .

For the episcopal churches of Sweden and Finland the first constitution or "Church order" was formed in 1571. It provided for the visitation of the clergy by the bishop, and for the power of the clergy to exclude their lay folk from the Holy Communion, subject to appeal to the bishop. Both minor and major excommunication had been in use, and for a long time public penance was required. The procedure underwent great modification in 1686; but public penance was not taken away till 1855, and then confession to and absolution by the priest in the presence of witnesses was still required. Civil jurisdiction in causes appears to have been given up early .

Roman Catholic countries.

The position in France was the same as that in Belgium, Italy, &c., till 1906, when the Church ceased to be established. The only Latin countries in which conflict has not arisen appear to be the principality of Andorra and the republic of San Marino .

Jurisdiction in Anglican communion.

In those provinces of the Anglican communion where the Church is not established by the state, the tendency is not to attempt any external discipline over the laity; but on the other hand to exercise consensual jurisdiction over the clergy and office-bearers through courts nearly modelled on the old canonical patterns.

Modern jurisdiction of Church of Rome.

"Exemptions" now include all the regular religious orders, i.e. those orders which have solemn vows. Over the members of these orders their superiors have jurisdiction and not the bishop. Otherwise if they live out of their monastery, or even within that enclosure so notoriously offend as to cause scandal. In the first case, they may be punished by the ordinary of the place, acting as delegate of the pope without special appointment . In the second case, the bishop may require the superior to punish within a certain time and to certify the punishment to him; in default he himself may punish . So, regulars having cure of souls are subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop in matters pertaining thereto . The exemption of regular religious orders may be extended to religious societies without solemn vows by special concession of the pope, as in the case of the Passionists and Redemptorists .

Eastern Church.

The spiritual courts in the East have permanently acquired jurisdiction in the matrimonial causes of baptized persons; the Mahommedan governments allowing to Christians a personal law of their own. The patriarch of Constantinople is enabled to exercise an extensive criminal jurisdiction over Christians .

The subject matter of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Russia during the whole patriarchal period included matrimonial and testamentary causes, inheritance and sacrilege, and many questions concerning the Church domains and Church property, as well as spiritual offences of clergy and laity . The bishops had consistorial courts; the patriarchs, chanceries and consistories . Bishops were judged in synod and only lawfully judged in synod .

The court of first instance is the "consistorial court" of the bishop. This consists of a small body of ecclesiastics. Its decisions must be confirmed by the bishop . In the more important causes, as divorce , it only gives a provisional decision, which is reported by the bishop, with his own opinion, for final judgment, to the Most Holy Governing Synod.

The governing synod is the final court of appeal. It consists of a small number of bishops and priests nominated by the tsar, and is assisted by a "procurator," who is a layman, who explains to it the limits of its jurisdiction and serves as the medium of communication between it and the autocrat and secular authorities. It deals with the secular crimes of spiritual persons, if of importance and if not capital , and with heresy and schism. It is the only court which can try bishops or decree divorce. The tsar formally confirms its judgments; but sometimes reduces penalties in the exercise of the prerogative of mercy .

The governing synod now sits at St Petersburg, but appoints delegated commissions, with a portion of its jurisdiction, in Moscow and Georgia. The latter commission is presided over by the "exarch" .

Since the War of Independence, the kingdom of Greece has been ecclesiastically organized after the model of Russia, as one autocephalous "province," separated from its old patriarchate of Constantinople, with an honorary metropolitan and honorary archbishops . The Holy Synod possesses the metropolitical jurisdiction. It sits at Athens. The metropolitan of Athens is president, and there are four other members appointed by the government in annual rotation from the senior bishops. There is attached to it a government commissioner, with no vote, but affixing his signature to the synodical judgments .

The subject matter of the jurisdiction of Hellenic courts Christian seems to be confined to strictly spiritual discipline, mainly in regard to the professional misconduct of the clergy. Imprisonment may be inflicted in these last cases . All matrimonial causes are heard by the secular tribunals .

The bishop's consistorial court, consisting of himself and four priests, has a limited jurisdiction in first instance. Such a court can only suspend for seven days unless with the sanction of the Holy Synod .

The Holy Synod can only inflict temporary suspension, or imprisonment for fifteen days, unless with the sanction of the King's ministry. Deprivation, or imprisonment for more than two months, requires the approval of the king . The king or the ministry do not, however, rehear the cause by way of appeal, but merely restrain severity of sentence .

The Church of Cyprus has been autocephalous since at any rate the oecumenical synod of Ephesus in 431. The episcopate now consists of an archbishop and three suffragans . The final court is the island synod, which consists of the archbishop, his suffragans and four dignified priests. It has original and exclusive cognizance of causes of deposition of bishops .

Each bishop is assisted by at least two officers with judicial or quasi-judicial powers, the "archimandrite" who adjudicates upon causes of revenue and the archdeacon who adjudicates on questions between deacons . The "exarch" of the archbishop, who is a dignitary but not a bishop, has a seat in the provincial synod.

In the Balkan States, the system--inherited from Byzantine and Turkish times--of ecclesiastical jurisdictions prevails, except that they are now autocephalous, and independent of the patriarch of Constantinople. Matrimonial causes in Servia are of ecclesiastical cognizance .

ECCLESIASTICAL LAW, in its broadest sense, the sum of the authoritative rules governing the Christian Church, whether in its internal polity or in its relations with the secular power. Since there are various churches, widely differing alike in their principles and practice, it follows that a like difference exists in their ecclesiastical law, which is the outcome of their corporate consciousness as modified by their several relations to the secular authority. At the outset a distinction must be made between churches which are "established" and those that are "free." The ecclesiastical laws of the latter are, like the rules of a private society or club, the concern of the members of the church only, and come under the purview of the state only in so far as they come in conflict with the secular law . In the case of "established" Churches, on the other hand, whatever the varying principle on which the system is based, or the difference in its practical application, the essential conditions are that the ecclesiastical law is also the law of the land, the decisions of the church courts being enforced by the civil power. This holds good both of the Roman Catholic Church, wherever this is recognized as the "state religion," of the Oriental Churches, whether closely identified with the state itself , or endowed with powers over particular nationalities within the state , and of the various Protestant Churches established in Great Britain and on the continent of Europe.

The ecclesiastical law of England is in complete dependence upon the authority of the state. The Church of England cannot be said, from a legal point of view, to have a corporate existence or even a representative assembly. The Convocation of York and the Convocation of Canterbury are provincial assemblies possessing no legislative or judicial authority; even such purely ecclesiastical questions as may be formally commended to their attention by "letters of business" from the crown can only be finally settled by act of parliament. The ecclesiastical courts are for the most part officered by laymen, whose subordination to the archbishops and bishops is purely formal, and the final court of appeal is the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. In like manner changes in the ecclesiastical law are made directly by parliament in the ordinary course of legislation, and in point of fact a very large portion of the existing ecclesiastical law consists of acts of parliament.

The sources of the ecclesiastical law of England are thus described by Dr. Richard Burn :--"The ecclesiastical law of England is compounded of these four main ingredients--the civil law, the canon law, the common law, and the statute law. And from these, digested in their proper rank and subordination, to draw out one uniform law of the church is the purport of this book. When these laws do interfere and cross each other, the order of preference is this:--'The civil law submitteth to the canon law; both of these to the common law; and all three to the statute law. So that from any one or more of these, without all of them together, or from all of them together without attending to their comparative obligation, it is not possible to exhibit any distinct prospect of the English ecclesiastical constitution.' Under the head of statute law Burn includes 'the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, agreed upon in Convocation in the year 1562; and in like manner the Rubric of the Book of Common Prayer, which, being both of them established by Acts of Parliament, are to be esteemed as part of the statute law.'"

Of the date of the book we have only one certain indication. It was translated by a person who says that he "came into Egypt in the 38th year of Euergetes the king" , i.e. in 132 B.C., and that he executed the work some time later. The translator believed that the writer of the original was his own grandfather . It is therefore reasonable to suppose that the book was composed not later than the first half of the 2nd century B.C., or even before the beginning of the century. Arguments for a pre-Maccabean date may be derived from the fact that the book contains apparently no reference to the Maccabean struggles, from the eulogy of the priestly house of Zadok which fell into disrepute during these wars for independence.

In the Jewish Church Ecclesiasticus hovered on the border of the canon; in the Christian Church it crossed and recrossed the border. The book contains much which attracted and also much which repelled Jewish feeling, and it appears that it was necessary to pronounce against its canonicity. In the Talmud Rabbi Joseph says that it is forbidden to read the book of ben Sira, and further that "if our masters had not hidden the book , we might interpret the good things which are in it" . In the Christian Church it was largely used by Clement of Alexandria and by St Augustine. The lists of the Hebrew canon, however, given by Melito and by Origen rightly exclude Ecclesiasticus, and Jerome writes: "Let the Church read these two volumes for the instruction of the people, not for establishing the authority of the dogmas of the Church" . In the chief MS. of the Septuagint, cod. B, Ecclesiasticus comes between Wisdom and Esther, no distinction being drawn between canonical and uncanonical. In the Vulgate it immediately precedes Isaiah. The council of Trent declared this book and the rest of the books reckoned in the Thirty-nine Articles as apocryphal to be canonical.

The text of the book raises intricate problems which are still far from solution. The original Hebrew has come down to us in a mutilated and corrupt form. The beginning as far as iii. 7 is lost. There is a gap from xvi. 26 to xxx. 11. There are marginal readings which show that two different recensions existed once in Hebrew. The Greek version exists in two forms-- that preserved in cod. B and in the other uncial MSS., that preserved in the cursive codex 248 . The former has a somewhat briefer text, the latter agrees more closely with the Hebrew text. The majority of Greek cursives agree generally with the Latin Vulgate, and offer the fuller text in a corrupt form. The Syriac version is paraphrastic, but on the whole it follows the Hebrew text. Owing to the mutilation of the Hebrew by the accidents of time the Greek version retains its place as the chief authority for the text, and references by chapter and verse are usually made to it.

Bickell and D.S. Margoliouth have supposed that the Hebrew text preserved in the fragments is not original, but a retranslation from the Greek or the Syriac or both. This view has not commended itself to the majority of scholars, but there is at least a residuum of truth in it. The Hebrew text, as we have it, has a history of progressive corruption behind it, and its readings can often be emended from the Septuagint, e.g. xxxvii. 11 . The Hebrew marginal readings occasionally seem to be translations from the Greek or Syriac, e.g. xxxviii. 4 . More frequently, however, strange readings of the Greek and Syriac are to be explained as corruptions of our present Hebrew. Substantially our Hebrew must be pronounced original.

The restoration of a satisfactory text is beyond our hopes. Even before the Christian era the book existed in two recensions, for we cannot doubt, after reading the Greek translator's preface, that the translator amplified and paraphrased the text before him. It is probable that at least one considerable omission must be laid to his charge, for the hymn preserved in the Hebrew text after ch. li. 12 is almost certainly original. Ancient translators allowed themselves much liberty in their work, and Ecclesiasticus possessed no reputation for canonicity in the 2nd century B.C. to serve as a protection for its text. Much, however, may be done towards improving two of the recensions which now lie before us. The incomplete Hebrew text exists in four different MSS., and the study of the peculiarities of these had already proved fruitful. The Syriac text, made without doubt from the Hebrew, though often paraphrastic is often suggestive. The Greek translation, made within a century or half-century of the writing of the book, must possess great value for the criticism of the Hebrew text. The work of restoring true Hebrew readings may proceed with more confidence now that we have considerable portions of the Hebrew text to serve as a model. For the restoration of the Greek text we have, besides many Greek MSS., uncial and cursive, the old Latin, the Syro-Hexaplar, the Armenian, Sahidic and Ethiopic versions, as well as a considerable number of quotations in the Greek and Latin Fathers. Each of the two recensions of the Greek must, however, be separately studied, before any restoration of the original Greek text can be attempted.

The uncertainty of the text has affected both English versions unfavourably. The Authorized Version, following the corrupt cursives, is often wrong. The Revised Version, on the other hand, in following the uncial MSS. sometimes departs from the Hebrew, while the Authorized Version with the cursives agrees with it. Thus the Revised Version omits the whole of iii. 19, which the Authorized Version retains, but for the clause, "Mysteries are revealed unto the meek," the Authorized Version has the support of the Hebrew, Syriac and cod. 248. Sometimes both versions go astray in places in which the Hebrew text recommends itself as original by its vigour; e.g. in vii. 26, where the Hebrew is,

Hast thou a wife? abominate her not. Hast thou a hated wife? trust not in her.

Again in ch. xxxviii. the Hebrew text in at least two interesting passages shows its superiority over the text which underlies both English versions.

ver. 1. Acquaint thyself with a Honour a physician according physician before thou have to thy need of him with the need of him. honours due unto him.

ver. 15. He that sinneth against his He that sinneth before his Maker will behave himself Maker, let him fall into the proudly against a physician. hands of the physician.

In character and contents Ecclesiasticus resembles the book of Proverbs. It consists mainly of maxims which may be described in turn as moral, utilitarian and secular. Occasionally the author attacks prevalent religious opinions, e.g. the denial of free-will , or the assertion of God's indifference towards men's actions . Occasionally, again, Ben Sira touches the highest themes, and speaks of the nature of God: "He is All" ; "He is One from everlasting" ; "The mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh" . Though the book is imitative and secondary in character it contains several passages of force and beauty, e.g. ch. ii. ; xv. 11-20 ; xxiv. 1-22 ; xlii. 15-25 ; xliv. 1-15 . Many detached sayings scattered throughout the book show a depth of insight, or a practical shrewdness, or again a power of concise speech, which stamps them on the memory. A few examples out of many may be cited. "Call no man blessed before his death" ; "He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled" ; "He hath not given any man licence to sin" ; "Man cherisheth anger against man; and doth he seek healing from the Lord?" ; "Mercy is seasonable ... as clouds of rain" ; "All things are double one against another: and he hath made nothing imperfect" ; "Work your work before the time cometh, and in his time he will give you your reward" . In spite, however, of the words just quoted it cannot be said that Ben Sira preaches a hopeful religion. Though he prays, "Renew thy signs, and repeat thy wonders ... Fill Sion with thy majesty and thy Temple with thy glory" , he does not look for a Messiah. Of the resurrection of the dead or of the immortality of the soul there is no word, not even in xli. 1-4, where the author exhorts men not to fear death. Like the Psalmist he asks, "Who shall give praise to the Most High in the grave?" In his maxims of life he shows a somewhat frigid and narrow mind. He is a pessimist as regards women; "From a woman was the beginning of sin; and because of her we all die" . He does not believe in home-spun wisdom; "How shall he become wise that holdeth the plough?" . Artificers are not expected to pray like the wise man; "In the handywork of their craft is their prayer" . Merchants are expected to cheat; "Sin will thrust itself in between buying and selling" .

ECGBERT, or ECGBERHT , king of the West Saxons, succeeded to the throne in 802 on the death of Beorhtric. It is said that at an earlier period in his life he had been driven out for three years by Offa and Beorhtric. The accession of Ecgbert seems to have brought about an invasion by AEthelmund, earl of the Hwicce, who was defeated by Weoxtan, earl of Wiltshire. In 815 Ecgbert ravaged the whole of the territories of the West Welsh, which probably at this time did not include much more than Cornwall. The next important occurrence in the reign was the defeat of Beornwulf of Mercia at a place called Ellandun in 825. After this victory Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex submitted to Wessex; while the East Anglians, who slew Beornwulf shortly afterwards, acknowledged Ecgbert as overlord. In 829 the king conquered Mercia, and Northumbria accepted him as overlord. In 830 he led a successful expedition against the Welsh. In 836 he was defeated by the Danes, but in 838 he won a battle against them and their allies the West Welsh at Hingston Down in Cornwall. Ecgbert died in 839, after a reign of thirty-seven years, and was succeeded by his son AEthelwulf. A somewhat difficult question has arisen as to the parentage of Ecgbert. Under the year 825 the Chronicle states that in his eastern conquests Ecgbert recovered what had been the rightful property of his kin. The father of Ecgbert was called Ealhmund, and we find an Ealhmund, king in Kent, mentioned in a charter dated 784, who is identified with Ecgbert's father in a late addition to the Chronicle under the date 784. It is possible, however, that the Chronicle in 825 refers to some claim through Ine of Wessex from whose brother Ingeld Ecgbert was descended.

ECGFRITH , king of Northumbria, succeeded his father Oswio in 671. He was married to AEthelthryth, daughter of Anna of East Anglia, who, however, took the veil shortly after Ecgfrith's accession, a step which possibly led to his long quarrel with Wilfrid archbishop of York. Ecgfrith married a second wife, Eormenburg, before 678, the year in which he expelled Wilfrid from his kingdom. Early in his reign he defeated the Picts who had risen in revolt. Between 671 and 675 Ecgfrith defeated Wulfhere of Mercia and seized Lindsey. In 679, however, he was defeated by AEthelred of Mercia, who had married his sister Osthryth, on the river Trent. Ecgfrith's brother AElfwine was killed in the battle, and the province of Lindsey was given up when peace was restored at the intervention of Theodore of Canterbury. In 684 Ecgfrith sent an expedition to Ireland under his general Berht, which seems to have been unsuccessful. In 685, against the advice of Cuthbert, he led a force against the Picts under his cousin Burde, son of Bile, was lured by a feigned flight into their mountain fastnesses, and slain at Nechtanesmere in Forfarshire. Bede dates the beginning of the decline of Northumbria from his death. He was succeeded by his brother Aldfrith.

Echegaray succeeded to the literary inheritance of L?pez de Ayala and of Tamayo y Baus; and though he possesses neither the poetic imagination of the first nor the instinctive tact of the second, it is impossible to deny that he has reached a larger audience than either. Not merely in Spain, but in every land where Spanish is spoken, and in cities as remote from Madrid as Munich and Stockholm, he has met with an appreciation incomparably beyond that accorded to any other Spanish dramatist of recent years. But it would be more than usually rash to prophesy that this exceptional popularity will endure. There have been signs of a reaction in Spain itself, and Echegaray's return to politics in 1905 was significant enough. He applies his mathematics to the drama; no writer excels him in artful construction, in the arrangement of dramatic scenes, in mere theatrical technique, in the focusing of attention on his chief personages. These are valuable gifts in their way, and Echegaray has, moreover, a powerful, gloomy imagination, which is momentarily impressive. In the drawing of character, in the invention of felicitous phrase, in the contrivance of verbal music, he is deficient. He alternates between the use of verse and prose; and his hesitancy in choosing a medium of expression is amply justified, for the writer's prose is not more distinguished than his verse. These serious shortcomings may explain the diminution of his vogue in Spain; they will certainly tell against him in the estimate of posterity.

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