DOCTORS' COMMONS. A name applied both to the association of doctors of the civil and canon law in London. practicing by exclu sive privilege in the ecclesiastical courts, and to a erected by them about 1567 near Saint Paul's for the aeeommodation of those courts and the Court of Admiralty. The doctors were divided into two Masses—advocate: and proctors —corresponding to attorneys and solicitors, and were headed by a president, the dean of arches for the time being. Admission to practice was granted to a D.C.L. of Camhridge or of Oxford by the &env of the Arehhishop. after an elabo rate ceremony. The college was dissolved in 1857 and the property sold, the proctors being given privileges of solicitors and receiving com pensation. and solicitors being allowed to act as proctors. The principal ecclesiastical court com prised in the Doctors' Commons was the Court of Arches, the appellate court of the Arch bishop of Canlerbury, presided over by the dean of arches, with original jurisdiction in all e•elesiastieal eases in the Province of Canter bury. and also in cases raised by letters of request.
I See LETTERS.) Divorces were formerly tried
here. hut are now tried by the Divorce Court. The other courts have in the main suffered the same fate. They comprised the Arehdeacon's Conrt, for ecclesiastical eases in the archdeacon ry : the Prerogative Court. with certain probate jurisdiction (now transferred to the Probate Court) : the Faculty Court, for the granting of dispensations: and the Court of Delegates. in eases of ecclesiastical appeals (now transferred to the judicial committee of the Privy Council). The buildings as well as the organization of the Din-tors' Commons have disappeared. the courts have been amalgamated with others. the officials have lost their special privileges. but the old names remain. and will probably die out hut slowly. For the statutes concerning. the changes in the old arrangement, consult: 20 and 21 Viet., c. 77; 21 and 22 Viet., ce. 95, 10S: 23 and 24 Viet., e. 27; :33 and 34 Viet., e. 2S, s. :30; 40 and 41 Viet.. c. 25, s. 17. Consult also Stow, Surrey of London I Loudon, 159S ) See AncuEs, COURT OF: AtronNtA 11.ttun ; SOLICITOR.