BRAWLING IN CHURCHES, in the law of England, is an offense against the public peace. This offense may generally be described as quarreling or creating a disturbance in a church; therefore, mere quarrelsome words, which arc neither an affray nor an offense in any other place, are penal here. It was enacted by 5 and 6 Edw. VI. c. 4, s. 3, that if any person shall, by words only, quarrel, chide, or brawl in a church or church yard, he might be prohibited from entering the church; and persons assaulting others there might be excommunicated, or have an ear cut off and be branded in the cheek. But that statute was repealed in 1860 as regards laymen, and justices of the peace, under the statute 23 and 24 Viet. c. 32, now deal with riotous, violent, and indecent behavior in churchyards or in churches and dissenting chapels, by fining the offender £u, or com mitting him to prison for two months. This enactment protects all kinds of religious services, though the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts continues for some purposes. Constables and church-wardens may immediately apprehend and remove the offender. Other regulations respecting the disturbance of a congregation, or molestation of a clergyman during divine service, will he found in the 1 Mary, c. 3 (1553), which, although of Roman Catholic origin and application, is still held to be the law for the protection of the Protestant established church. It enacts (section 2) that if any person or persons shall willingly and of purpose, by overt word or deed, molest or disquiet any preacher . . . in any sermon, preaching, or collation, that he shall make in any church, chapel, churchyard, or in any other place or places, used or appointed to be preached in; or (section 3) if any person or persons shall molest a priest preparing or celebrating mass, "or other such divine service, sacraments, or sacrament als as was most commonly frequented and used in the last year of the reign of the late sovereign lord, king henry VIII., or that at any time hereafter shall be allowed, set forth, or authorized
by the queen's majesty;' or shall abuse the blessed sacrament—such person or persons shall be liable to be committed to gaol, there to remain without bail or mainprize for the space of three monthA thou next ensuing; and further, to the next quarter-sessions, at which the persons so offending shall only be delivered and discharged out of prison upon sufficient sureties for their good behavior during one whole rear. The act con tains other regulations for the protection of the ministrations of the church, and it saves thejurisdiction of the ecclesiastical law.
By another act, 1 Will. and Mary, c. 18, s. 18, passed in 16S8, it is provided that if any person or persons shall disquiet or disturb any cathedral or parish church, chapel, or other congregation, or misuse any preacher or teacher, such person or persons may be committed to prison, and, on her conviction, be fined S2.20.
It remains to be added, that reviling church ordinances subjects to fine and impris onment —and profaning the Christian religion, and depraving the Book of Common Prayer, are also subjects of penal legislation. See on this subject 1 Eliz. c. 2, and the 14 Chas. II. C. 4. See also BLasrumtv and RELIGION, OFFENSES AGAINST, in which latter the Scotch law on the subject of this article will be found stated.