Anglican Canon Law: Course Readings

There is no recognized corpus of binding law globally applicable to all Churches in the Anglican Communion. Ostensibly, each Church is autonomous, free to make rules to facilitate and to order its internal life. This book, which is global in scope and will be of interest throughout theworld, makes available for the first time a comparative study of the Constitutions, Canons, and other forms of law of Churches in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Does analysis draws out the similarities and differences between them and, from the coincidence of actual laws and from globalecclesiastical conventions enunciated by the Lambeth Conference, he elucidates the global principles of Anglican canon law that may apply to all Churches in the Communion. The subjects examined include: government; ministry; doctrine and liturgy; rites; property; inter-church relations; andecumenism.Does thorough and practical analysis of a hitherto under-explored subject is placed squarely within its jurisprudential and theological context, and will be welcomed by both practitioners and scholars. For those within the Anglican Communion, his book offers a wealth of information enablingindividual Churches to see how fellow Churches are organized. For those without, the book provides a valuable insight into Anglican government and law.

In this book one of the world's foremost legal historians draws upon the evidence of the canon law, court records and the English common-law system to demonstrate the extent to which, contrary to received wisdom, Roman canon law survived in England after the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation. R. H. Helmholz provides an extensive examination of the manuscript records of the ecclesiastical courts and professional literature of the English civilians. Rebutting the views of Maitland and others, he shows how English looked to the Continent for guidance and authority in administering the system of justice they had inherited from the Middle Ages. Intellectual links between England and the Continent are shown to have survived the Reformation and the abolition of papal jurisdiction. The extent to which papal material was still used in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries will interest all readers and surprise many.

A thoroughly revised and updated standard work on the Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England.

Oxford's variorum edition of William Blackstone's seminal treatise on the common law of England and Wales offers the definitive account of the Commentaries' development in a modern format. For the first time it is possible to trace the evolution of English law and Blackstone's thought through the eight editions of Blackstone's lifetime, and the authorial corrections of the posthumous ninth edition. Introductions by the general editor and the volume editors set the Commentaries in their historical context, examining Blackstone's distinctive view of the common law, and editorial notes throughout the four volumes assist the modern reader in understanding this key text in the Anglo-American common law tradition. Book I: Of the Rights of Persons covers the key topics of constitutional and public law. Blackstone's inaugural lecture 'On the Study of the Law' introduces a series of general essays on the nature of law, including a chapter on 'The Absolute Rights of Individuals' . This is followed by an extended account of England's political constitution. The various categories of people or subjects are then surveyed, with special attention to the rights and obligations of masters and servants, husbands and wives, parents and children, and lastly 'artificial persons', or corporations. In addition to David Lemmings' introduction to the volume, Book I includes an introduction from the General Editor Wilfrid Prest.

This volume is a major new scholarly edition of some of the most important sources in the history of the Anglican Church. It includes all the canons produced by the Church of England, from the opening of the Reformation parliamentin 1529 to 1947. Most of the material comes from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, among which the canons of 1529, 1603 and 1640, and Cardinal Pole's legatine constitutions of 1556, are of particular importance. Butthe volume also includes the first scholarly editions of the deposited canons of 1874 and 1879 and the proposed canons of 1947. In addition, it includes both the Irish canons of 1634 and the Scottish canons of 1636. The canons areaccompanied by a substantial number of supplementary texts and appendixes, illustrating their sources and development; Latin texts are accompanied by parallel English translations, and the editor provides a full scholarly apparatus, which is particularly valuable for its identification of the sources of the various canons. The texts are preceded by an extended introduction, which provides not only an up-to-date analysis of the framing and significance ofeach set of canons, but also critical discussions of the origins and development of canon law and the system of ecclesiastical courts. It is an essential work of reference for anyone interested in the history of the Church of England since the Reformation, or in Anglican canon law. GERALD BRAYis Anglican Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University.

The English Reformation began as a dispute over questions of canon law, and reforming the existing system was one of the state's earliest objectives. A draft proposal for this, known as the Henrician canons, has survived, revealing the state of English canon law at the time of the break with Rome, and providing a basis for Cranmer's subsequent, and much better known, attempt to revise the canon law, which was published by John Foxe under the title `Reformatio legum ecclesiasticarum' in 1571. Although it never became law, it was highly esteemed by later canon lawyers and enjoyed an unofficial authority in ecclesiastical courts. The Henrician canons and the `Reformatio legum ecclesiasticarum' are thus crucial for an understanding of Reformation church discipline, revealing the problems and opportunities facing those who wanted to reform the Church of England's institutional structure in the mid-Tudor period,an age which was to determine the course of the church for centuries to come.This volume makes available for the first time full scholarly editions and translations of the whole text, taking all the available evidence into consideration, and setting the `Reformatio' firmly in both its historical and contemporary context. GERALD BRAY is Anglican Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School, Samford University.

This text outlines the development of the canon law of the Western church from its beginnings to the end of the Middle Ages. The rules of canon law affected the lives and actions of practically everyone, its enforcement mechanisms reaching into everyday affairs at all social levels.

What is the real meaning of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'? Where did the idea for the 'Jubilee 2000' and 'Drop the Debt' campaigns come from? And what, really, are the 'Ten Commandments'? In God, Justice, and Society, Jonathan Burnside looks at aspects of law and legality in the Bible, from the patriarchal narratives in the Hebrew Bible through to the trials of Jesus in the New Testament. He explores the nature of biblical law, legal thinking, and legal institutions by setting the biblical texts in their literary, social, and theological context. Burnside questions the biblical texts from the perspective of an academic lawyer and criminologist and asks what the biblical materials contribute to our understanding about the nature and character of law. He examines much of biblical law and narrative that has formed the basis of Western civilization, while at the same time exploring differences between biblical law and modern legal concepts and legal assumptions. The resulting book is a cross-disciplinary analysis which recognizes the integration of law and theology. God, Justice and Society presents biblical law as an integration of instructional genres in the Bible which together express a vision of a society ultimately accountable to God. Burnside seeks to understand both the application of law and legal theory to the Bible and the extent to which biblical law contributes important insights into legal dilemmas in today's world. A holistic teaching website to support this book, containing downloadable resources, is available at www.seekjustice.co.uk.

This book is a collection of essays by leading theologians and church leaders on the implications of the proposed Anglican Covenant, which has been offered as a solution to the recent crises facing worldwide Anglicanism. At the Anglican Primates' meeting in February 2007 a draft Covenant was commended for study by the constituent churches of the Anglican Communion. This book presents a sober and dispassionate discussion of the theology and politics behind the Covenant. The writers represent a number of different theological traditions and disciplines within and beyond Anglicanism. What unites them is a desire to understand other opinions and to listen to different views. The contributors include theological educators, church historians, ethicists, biblical scholars, and canonists from different parts of the Anglican Communion and from ecumenical partners. While the book aims to be dispassionate and to stand apart from the rhetoric of ecclesiastical parties, it also offers original and thought-provoking discussions based on detailed and thorough scholarship. In his introduction Mark Chapman discusses the development of the authority structures of the Anglican Communion, as well as the recent history of conflict between the member churches, particularly over the issue of homosexuality. Ecumenical reflections on conciliarity are offered by Paul McPartlan, a leading Roman Catholic scholar, and Kenneth Wilson, a prominent Methodist. John Barton, Professor of Old Testament at Oxford University, contributes a chapter on the concept of Covenant in the Old Testament tradition. This book provides a valuable resource for global Anglicanism as it begins to develop the final version of the Covenant over the coming years. It will be crucial reading for all those involved in preparing for the Lambeth Conference of 2008.

The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian denomination and claims a membership of some 80 million members in about 164 countries. Given that there are only around two hundred countries in the world, this makes the churches of the Anglican Communion the most geographicallywidespread denomination after Roman Catholicism. The 44 essays in this volume embrace a wide range of academic disciplines: theological; historical; demography and geography; and different aspects of culture and ethics. They are united in their discussion of what is effectively a newinter-disciplinary subject which we have termed "Anglican Studies". At the core of this volume is the phenomenon of "Anglicanism" as this is expressed in different places and in a variety of ways across the world.This Handbook covers a far broader set of topics from a wider range of perspectives than has been hitherto attempted in Anglican Studies. At the same time, it doesn't impose a particular theological or historical agenda. The contributions are drawn from across the spectrum of theological views andopinions. It shows that the unsettled nature of the polity is part of its own rich history; and many will see this as a somewhat lustrous tradition. In its comprehensive coverage, this volume is a valuable contribution to Anglican Studies and helps formulate a discipline that might perhaps promotedialogue and discussion across the Anglican world.

Since the early 1990s, politicians, policymakers, the media and academics have increasingly focused on religion, noting the significant increase in the number of cases involving religion. As a result, law and religion has become a specific area of study. The work of Professor Norman Doe at Cardiff University has served as a catalyst for this change, especially through the creation of the LLM in Canon Law in 1991 (the first degree of its type since the time of the Reformation) and the Centre for Law and Religion in 1998 (the first of its kind in the UK). Published to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the LLM in Canon Law and to pay tribute to Professor Doe's achievements so far, this volume reflects upon the interdisciplinary development of law and religion.

Christian Law: Contemporary Principles offers a detailed comparison of the laws of churches across ten distinct Christian traditions worldwide: Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, Presbyterian, United, Congregational and Baptist. From this comparison, Professor Doe proposes that all denominations of the faith share common principles in spite of their doctrinal divisions; and that these principles reveal a concept of 'Christian law' and contribute to a theological understanding of global Christian identity. Adopting a unique interdisciplinary approach, the book provides comprehensive coverage on the sources and purposes of church law, the faithful (lay and ordained), the institutions of church governance, discipline and dispute resolution, doctrine and worship, the rites of passage, ecumenism, property and finance, as well as church, State and society. This is an invaluable resource for lawyers and theologians who are engaged in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, showing how dogmas may divide but laws link Christians across traditions.

Written by experts from within their communities, this book compares the legal regimes of Christian churches as systems of religious law. The ecumenical movement, with its historical theological focus, has failed to-date to address the role of church law in shaping relations between churches and fostering greater mutual understanding between them. In turn, theologians and jurists from the different traditions have not hitherto worked together on a fully ecumenical appreciation of the potential value of church laws to help, and sometimes to hinder, the achievement of greater Christian unity. This book seeks to correct this ecumenical church law deficit. It takes account of the recent formulation by an ecumenical panel of a Statement of Principles of Christian Law which has been welcomed by Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of the Orthodox Church worldwide, as recognizing the importance of canon law for ecumenical dialogue. This book, therefore, provides not only the fruits of an understanding of church laws within ten Christian traditions, but critically evaluates the Statement against the laws of these individual ecclesial communities. The book will be an essential resource for scholars of law and religion, theology and sociology. It will also be of interest to those working in religious institutions and policy-makers.

Essays of tribute to the Bishop of Chichester, Eric Kemp.

In this collection of essays, Erickson investigates the ways in which concepts and issues relating to the Church's life have developed in the past and continue to challenge Christians in the present. Some take as their point of departure certain words - canon, priest, heretic - whose meaning and resonance has quietly but significantly shifted over the centuries. Others explore changes in words and images used to express mysteries like forgiveness and reconciliation or to describe the Church's structures for unity and community. Still others examine in historical perspective the issues dividing Christians of East and West; they discuss not only the ways by which the church's unity and continuity have been perceived and expressed over the centuries but also the problems of disunity and discontinuity.

This volume traces the reception and subsequent history of the canon law in England between 597 and 1649. It covers, amongst other topics, the Anglo-Saxon laws, both secular and spiritual; the establishment of consistory courts; and the fate of the canon law during and after the Englishreformation.Secondly, this volume addresses the subjects under ecclesiastical jurisdiction: Civil procedure and the Law of Proof; monetary obligations and economic regulation; testamentary law and probate jurisdiction; tithes and spiritual dues; churches and the clergy; marriage and divorce; defamation; andcrimes and criminal procedure. These subjects are examined using evidence from later medieval and early modern court records, and the volume seeks to place them within the context of formal canon law. The volume also places ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the context of English society and theEnglish common law.

Ecclesiastical Law has established itself as the leading authority on the laws of the Church of England. Offering a uniquely detailed and scholarly exposition of the law, it has become an essential reference for anyone with a professional interest in ecclesiastical and canon law. The fourth edition has been fully revised and updated to take account of significant changes in the substantive law, specifically: the effects of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Care of Churches Measure 2018; and the overhaul of the procedure in the Consistory Court in consequence of the Faculty Jurisdiction Rules 2015; substantial repeals in the Statute Law (Repeals) Measure 2018 and the new procedure under the Legislative Reform Measure 2018; the effect of the House of Bishops' Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests concerning provision for traditionalists; and the role of the Independent Reviewer under the Priests (Resolution of Disputes Procedure) Regulations 2014. Ecclesiastical Law offers insightful commentary, thoughtful analysis, and a wealth of materials to the practitioner and student alike. Materials include: the Canons of the Church of England, together with the Measures and Rules (updated to 2018) regulating the faculty jurisdiction and clergy discipline.

This introductory text explores the historical origins of the main legal institutions that came to characterize the Anglo-American legal tradition, and to distinguish it from European legal systems. The book contains both text and extracts from historical sources and literature. The book is published in color, and contains over 250 illustrations, many in color, including medieval illuminated manuscripts, paintings, books and manuscripts, caricatures, and photographs.

Sir Frederick Pollock and Frederic William Maitland's legal classic The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I expanded the work of Sir Edward Coke and William Blackstone by exploring the origins of key aspects of English common law and society and with them the development of individual rights as these were gradually carved out from the authority of the Crown and the Church. Book one examines Anglo-Saxon law, goes on to consider the changes in law introduced by the Normans, then moves to the twelfth-century Age of Glanvill followed by the thirteenth century Age of Bracton. Book two takes up different areas of English law by topic, including land tenure, marriage and wardship, fealty, the ranks of men both free and unfree, aliens, Jews, excommunicates, women, and the churches and the King, before turning to the various jurisdictions of that decentralised era.

Priests of the Law tells the story of the first people in the history of the common law to think of themselves as legal professionals. In the middle decades of the thirteenth century, a group of justices working in the English royal courts spent a great deal of time thinking and writing about what it meant to be a person who worked in the law courts. This book examines the justices who wrote the treatise known as Bracton. Written and re-written between the 1220s and the 1260s, Bracton is considered one of the great treatises of the early common law and is still occasionally cited by judges and lawyers when they want to make the case that a particular rule goes back to the beginning of the common law. This book looks to Bracton less for what it can tell us about the law of the thirteenth century, however, than for what it can tell us about the judges who wrote it. The judges who wrote Bracton - Martin of Pattishall, William of Raleigh, and Henry of Bratton - were some of the first people to work full-time in England's royal courts, at a time when there was no recourse to an obvious model for the legal professional. They found one in an unexpected place: they sought to clothe themselves in the authority and prestige of the scholarly Roman-law tradition that was sweeping across Europe in the thirteenth century, modelling themselves on the jurists of Roman law who were teaching in European universities. In Bracton and other texts they produced, the justices of the royal courts worked hard to ensure that the nascent common-law tradition grew from Roman Law. Through their writing, this small group of people, working in the courts of an island realm, imagined themselves to be part of a broader European legal culture. They made the case that they were not merely servants of the king: they were priests of the law.

The Oxford History of Anglicanism is a major new and unprecedented international study of the identity and historical influence of one of the world's largest versions of Christianity. This global study of Anglicanism from the sixteenth century looks at how was Anglican identity constructed and contested at various periods since the sixteenth century; and what was its historical influence during the past six centuries. It explores not just the ecclesiastical and theological aspects of global Anglicanism, but also the political, social, economic, and cultural influences of this form of Christianity that has been historically significant in western culture, and a burgeoning force in non-western societies today. The chapters are written by international exports in their various historical fields which includes the most recent research in their areas, as well as original research. The series forms an invaluable reference for both scholars and interested non-specialists. Volume one of The Oxford History of Anglicanism examines a period when the nature of 'Anglicanism' was still heavily contested. Rather than merely tracing the emergence of trends that we associate with later Anglicanism, the contributors instead discuss the fluid and contested nature of the Church of England's religious identity in these years, and the different claims to what should count as 'Anglican' orthodoxy. After the introduction and narrative chapters explain the historical background, individual chapters then analyse different understandings of the early church and church history; variant readings of the meaning of the royal supremacy, the role of bishops and canon law, and cathedrals; the very diverse experiences of religion in parishes, styles of worship and piety, church decoration, and Bible usage; and the competing claims to 'Anglican' orthodoxy of puritanism, 'avant-garde conformity' and Laudianism. Also analysed are arguments over the Church of England's confessional identity and its links with the foreign Reformed Churches, and the alternative models provided by English Protestant activities in Ireland, Scotland and North America. The reforms of the 1640s and 1650s are included in their own right, and the volume concludes that the shape of the Restoration that emerged was far from inevitable, or expressive of a settled 'Anglican' identity.

The first history of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in England that covers the period up to the removal of principal subjects inherited from the Middle Ages. Probate, marriage and divorce, tithes, defamation, and disciplinary prosecutions involving the laity are all covered. All disappeared from the church's courts during the mid-nineteenth century, and were taken over by the royal courts. The book traces the steps and reasons - large and small - by which this occurred.

Recent years have witnessed significant discoveries of texts and artefacts relevant to the study of the Old and New Testaments and remarkable shifts in scholarly methods of study. The present volume mirrors the increasing specialization of Old Testament studies, including the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, and reflects rich research activity that has unfolded over the last four decades in Pentateuch theory, Septuagint scholarship, Qumran studies and early Jewish exegesis of biblical texts. The second half of the volume discusses the period running from the New Testament to 600, including chapters on the Coptic, Syriac and Latin bibles, the 'Gnostic' use of the scriptures, pagan engagement with the Bible, the use of the Bible in Christian councils and in popular and non-literary culture. A fascinating in-depth account of the reception of the Bible in the earliest period of its history.

Rodes examines the legal materials (cases, statutes, canons, and measures) used in the English experience of updating the medieval synthesis of church and state.

This Overview of the Canon Law of the Orthodox Catholic Church is a prcis of the lessons on Canon Law taught to undergraduate students of the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from 1968; and, after the division of the School into two Departments in 1982, to the undergraduates of the Department of Pastoral and Social Theology. With the passage of time, the content of the lessons underwent adaptations and improvements because of what had in the meantime become His Eminence Panteleimon's established ecclesiological and canonical views on certain matters of Canon Law. These changes were small but nonetheless of the essence. The present edition does not constitute a complete system of Canon Law, but, as its title declares, is an overview thereof.

What impact has Christianity had on the law from its beginnings to the present day? This introduction explores the main legal teachings of Western Christianity, set out in the texts and traditions of scripture and theology, philosophy and jurisprudence. It takes up the weightier matters of the law that Christianity has profoundly shaped - justice and mercy, rule and equity, discipline and love - as well as more technical topics of canon law, natural law, and state law. Some of these legal creations were wholly original to Christianity. Others were converted from Jewish and classical traditions. Still others were reformed by Renaissance humanists and Enlightenment philosophers. But whether original or reformed, these Christian teachings on law, politics and society have made and can continue to make fundamental contributions to modern law in the West and beyond.

This newly revised and enlarged edition of John Witte's authoritative historical study explores the interplay of law, theology, and marriage in the Western tradition. Witte uncovers the core beliefs that formed the theological genetic code of Western marriage and family law. He explores the systematic models of marriage developed by Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, and Enlightenment thinkers, and the transformative influence of each model on Western marriage law. In addition, he traces the millennium-long reduction of marriage from a complex spiritual, social, contractual, and natural institution into a simple private contract with freedom of entrance, exercise, and exit for husband and wife alike. This second edition updates and expands each chapter and the bibliography. It also includes three new chapters on classical, biblical, and patristic sources.