The introduction of this new code gave rise to a new class of practitioners, com mentators, and judges, almost as nume rous as those who had devoted themselves to the study and exposition of the civil law, from which they looked for aid in all cases of difficulty and doubt. In fact, the two systems of law, though to a cer tain extent rivals, became so far entwined, that the tribunals of the one were accus tomed, wherever their own law did not provide for a case, to adopt the rules that prevailed in those of the other.
The main object of the canon law was to establish the supremacy of ec clesiastical authority over the temporal power, or at least to assert the total in dependence of the clergy upon the laity. The positions, that the laws of laymen cannot bind the church to its prejudice, that the constitutions of princes in relation to ecclesiastical matters are of no autho rity, that subjects owe no allegiance to an excommunicated lord, are among the most prominent doctrines of Gratian's Decretum and the decretals. The en, croachments of the church upon the tem poral power were never encouraged iu England. The doctrines of passive obe dience and non-resistance, inculcated by the decretals, were not likely to be re lished by the rude barons who composed the parliaments of Henry III. and Ed ward I. Accordingly we find that this system of law never obtained a firm foot ing in this country: and our most emi nent lawyers have always shown great unwillingness to defer to its 'authority. It is observed by Blackstone (Com. i. p. 80) that "all the strength that either the papal or imperial laws have obtained in this realm is only because they have been admitted and received by immemo, rial usage and custom in some particular cases and some particular courts; and then they form a branch of the loges non scripts, or customary laws ; or else, be, cause they are in some other cases intro duced by consent of parliament, and then they owe their validity to scripte, or statute law." There was indeed a kind of national canon law, composed of lege tins and provincial constitutions, adapted to the necessities of the English Church. Of these the former were ecclesiastical laws enacted in national synods held under the cardinals Otho and Othobon, legates from Pope Gregory IX. and Cle ment IV. in the rein of Henry III. The provincial constitutions were the decrees of provincial synods held under divers archbishops of Canterbury, from Stephen Langton, in the reign of Henry III., to Henry Chichele, in the reign of Henry V., and adopted also by the pro vince of York in the reign of Henry VI.
•(Blackstone, Corn. i. p. 83; Burn's Ecci. Law, Preface.) With respect to these canons it was, at the time of the Reformation, provided by stet. 25 Henry VIII. c. 19 (afterwards repealed by 1 Philip and Mary, c. 8, but revived by 1 Eliz. c. 1), that they should be reviewed by the king and certain com missioners to be appointed under the act, but that, till such review should be made, all canons, constitutions, ordinances, and synodals provincial, being then already made and not repugnant to the law of the land or the king's prerogative, should still be used and executed. No such
review took place in Henry's time ; but the project for the reformation of the canons was revived under Edward VI., and a new code of ecclesiastical law was drawn up under a commission appointed by the crown under the stet. 3 & 4 Edward VI. c. 11, and received the name of Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticaram. The confirmation of this was prevented by the death of the king, and though the project for a review of the old canons was renewed in the reign of Elizabeth, it was soon dropped. and has not been revived.
The result is, that so much of the English canons made previously to the stet. of Henry VIII. as are not repugnant to the common or statute law, is still in force in this country. It has, however, been decided by the Court of King's Bench that the canons of the convocation of Canterbury, in 1603 (which, though confirmed byKingJames I., never received the sanction of parliament), do not (except so far as they are declaratory of the antient canon law) bind the laity of these realms. (Middleton v. Croft ; Strange's Reports, 1056.) It was, however, admitted by Lord Hardwicke, in delivering judg ment in this case, that the clergy are bound by all canons which are confirmed by the king. [CoxsTrrimoNs, ECCLESIASTICAL] There are two kinds of courts in Eng land, in which the canon law is under certain restrictions used. 1. The courts of the archbishops and bishops and their officers, usually called in our law Courts Christian, Curia Christianitatis, or ec clesiastical courts. 2. The courts of the two universities. In the first of these, the reception of the canon law is grounded entirely upon custom ; but the custom in the case of the universities derives addi tional support from the acts of parliamei.t which confirm the charters of those bodies. They are all subject to the control of the courts of common law, which assume the exclusive right of expounding all statutes relating to the ecclesiastical courts, and will prohibit them from going beyond the limits of their respective jurisdictions; and from all of them an appeal lies to the king in the last resort.
Before the Reformation, degrees were as frequent in the canon law as in the civil law. Many persons became gradu ates in both, or juris utrivaque doctores ; and this degree is still common in foreign universities. But Henry VIII., in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, issued a mandate to the university of Cambridge, to the effect that no lectures on canon law should be read, and no degrees whatever in that faculty conferred in the university for the future. (Stat. Acad. Cantab., p. 137.) It is probable that Oxford received a similar prohibition about the same time, as degrees in canon law have ever since been&continued in England.
The decree of Gratian and the Deere tale are usually cited not according to book and title, but by reference to the first word of the canon, which renders it necessary for the reader to consult the alphabetical list of the canons, in order to find out the book, title, and chapter, under which the canon he wishes to con sult is to be found.