BRAWLING, in British law, the offence of quarrelling, or creating a disturbance in a church. During the early stages of the Reformation in England religious controversy too often be came converted into actual disturbance, and the ritual lawlessness of the parochial clergy very frequently provoked popular violence. To repress these disturbances an act was passed in 1551, and an act of 15J3 added the punishment of imprisonment until the party should repent. The Places of Religious Worship Act, 1812, still makes it an offence to disturb congregations for religious worship permitted by that statute. The acts of 1551 and were partly repealed in 1828 and wholly repealed as regards laymen by the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 186o, which is now the statute chiefly relied upon. Under that act, persons guilty of riotous, violent, or indecent behaviour, in churches and chapels of the Church of England or Ireland, or in any chapel of any religious denomination, or in England in any place of religious worship duly certified, or in churchyards or burial-grounds, are liable on conviction before two justices to a penalty of not more than 15, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two months. This enactment applies to clergy as well as to laity, and a clergy man of the Church of England convicted under it may also be dealt with under the Clergy Discipline Act of 1892 (Girt v. Filling ham, 1901, L.R. Prob.176). When Mr. J. Kensit during an ordination service in St. Paul's Cathedral "objected" to one of the candidates for ordination, on grounds which did not constitute an impediment or notable crime within the meaning of the ordi nation service, he was held to have unlawfully disturbed the bishop of London in the conduct of the service, and to be liable to con viction under the Act of 186o (Kensit v. Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, 1905, L.R. 2 K.B.249). The public worship of protes tant dissenters, Roman Catholics, and Jews in England had before 186o been protected by a series of statutes beginning with the Toleration Act of 1689, and ending with the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 and the Liberty of Religious Worship Act 1855. Obstructing a clergyman or minister officiating in a place of divine worship is a misdemeanour under the Offences Against the Person Act, 1861, and riotous, violent, or indecent behaviour at a burial is a like offence under the Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880.
In the United States similar acts may be punished as breaches of the peace.