Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/342

 694 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE in those departments of law which were inadequately dealt with by the customs of the barbarian invaders and the tri- bunals of the feudal lords. As the church service continued to be in the Latin language, so the church courts preserved a considerable amount of Roman law, and they were usually more merciful and equitable in their judgments than the secular courts of those times. For these reasons and others, the church courts came to claim jurisdiction not only over all cases in which a clergyman or church property was con- cerned, or where a man was charged with heresy or irreli- gion, but also over many other matters which are to-day and had been in Roman times settled by the ordinary law courts. Since baptism was a sacrament performed and ; recorded by the clergy, it was natural for the church courts to settle lawsuits where questions of birth were involved. Marriage, too, was regarded as a sacrament and performed by clergy and subject to rules made by the Church, such as that near relatives might not wed. Consequently cases con- cerning matrimony and applications for separation or di- vorce came before a church court. The barbarians had seldom made wills, but let their property pass in accordance with fixed custom to the nearest kin ; persons who wished to contravert this rule were apt to desire to do so. in order to leave something to the Church ; moreover, the clergy were about the only persons who could write a will or anything else, and they were likely to be present at deathbeds to render the last ministrations to the dying. For all these reasons the ecclesiastical courts had secured well-nigh a monopoly of the law of testaments. Since an oath was a religious act, the church courts also took cognizance of cases involving sworn contracts. The ecclesiastical courts further took it upon themselves to forbid and to endeavor to punish a number of practices which were believed to be prohibited by the Bible or by the principles of Christianity, although they might not be proscribed as torts or crimes by the secular courts. Blasphemy is one example. Another is the lending of money at interest by Christians, which was absolutely prohibited by medieval canon law.