The Prerogative Court has jurisdiction of all wills and administrations of personal property left by persons having bona nota bilia, or effects of a certain value, in divers ecclesiastical jurisdictions within the pro vince. A very large proportion, not less than four fifths of the whole contentious business, and a very much larger part of the uncontested, or as it is termed common form business, is dispatched by this court. Its authority is necessary to the adminis tration of the effects of all persons dying possessed of personal property to the specified amount within the province, whether leaving a will or dying intestate ; and from the very great increase of per sonal property, arising from the public funds and the extension of the commer cial capital of the country, the business of this jurisdiction, both as deciding upon all the contested rights, and as register ing all instruments and proofs in respect of the succession to such property, is be come of very high public importance.
The Court of Peculiars, which is the third Archiepiscopal Court of Canterbury, takes cognizance of all matters arising in certain deaneries : one of these deaneries is in the diocese of London, another in the diocese of Rochester, another in the diocese of Winchester, each comprising several parishes ; and some others, over which the archbishop exercises ordinary jurisdiction, and which are exempt from and independent of the several bishops within whose dioceses they are locally situat, d.
The province of Canterbury, includes twenty-one dioceses, and therein the dio cese of Canterbury itself, where the or dinary episcopal jurisdiction is exercised by a commissary, in the same manner as in other dioceses.
The province of York includes five dioceses, besides that of Sodor and Man, and the archiepiscopal jurisdiction is exercised therein much in the same man ner as in the province of Canterbury.
The Diocesan Courts take cognizance of all matters arising locally within their respective limits, with the exception of places subject to peculiar jurisdiction. They may decide all matters of spiritual discipline ; they may suspend or deprive clergymen, declare marriages void, pro nounce sentence of separation is mem& et thoro, try the right of succession to per sonal property, and administer the other branches of ecclesiastical law.
The Archdeacon's Court is generally subordinate, with an appeal to the bishop's court ; though iu some instances it is in dependent and co-ordinate.
The archdeacons' courts,and the various peculiars already enumerated, in some instances take cognizance of all ecclesias tical matters arising within their own limits, though the jurisdiction of many of the peculiar courts' extends only to a single parish : the authority of some of them is limited to a part only of the mat ters that are usually the subject of eccle siastical cognizance ; several of the pe culiars possess voluntary, but not conten tious, jurisdiction.
The total number of courts which exer cise any species of ecclesiastical jurisdic tion in England and Wales is 372, which may be classed as follows :— Provincial and diocesan courts . 36 Courts of bishops' commissaries , 14 Archidiaconal courts . . 37 registrars, deputy-registrars, and all other officers in the ecclesiastical courts of Eng land, Wales, and Ireland, amounted to as .f.
England . . 101,171 Wales . . . 4,882 Ireland • . 14,459 The ecclesiastical jurisdiction compre hends causes of a civil and temporal nature ; some partaking both of a spiritual and civil character, and, lastly, some purely spiritual.
In the first class are testamentary causes, matrimonial causes for separation and for nullity of marriage, which are purely questions of civil right between individuals in their lay character, and are neither spiritual nor affect the church establishment.
The second class comprises causes of a mixed description, as suits for tithes, church-rates, seats, and faculties. As to tithes, however, the courts of common law can restrain the ecclesiastical courts from trying any cases of modus or pre scription, if either of the parties apply for a prohibition.
The third class includes church disci pline, and the correction of offences of a spiritual kind. They are proceeded upon in the way of criminal suits, pro salute animse, that is, for the safety of the of fender's soul, and for the lawful correc tion of manners. Among these are offences committed by the clergy themselves, such as neglect of duty, immoral conduct, ad vancing doctrines not conformable to the articles of the church, suffering dilapida tions, and the like offences ; also by lay men, such as brawling, laying violent hands on any person, and other irreverent conduct in the church or churchyards, violating churchyards, neglecting to re pair ecclesiastical buildings, incest, incon tinence, defamation ; all these are termed "Causes of Correction," except defama tion, which is of an anomalous character. These offences are punished by monition, penance, excommunication, formerly, and now in place of it imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months [Ex COMMUNICATION]. suspension ab ingressu ecclesite, suspension from office and deprivation.