Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/99

§. 3. held under the cardinals Otho and Othobon, legates from pope Gregory and pope Clement, in the reign of king Henry III about the years 1220 and 1268. The provincial contitutions are principally the decrees of provincial ynods, held under divers arch-bihops of Canterbury, from Stephen Langton in the reign of Henry III to Henry Chichele in the reign of Henry IV; and adopted alo by the province of York in the reign of Henry VI. At the dawn of the reformation, in the reign of king Henry VIII, it was enacted in parliament that a review hould be had of the canon law; and, till uch review hould be made, all canons, contitutions, ordinances, and ynodals provincial, being then already made, and not repugnant to the law of the land or the king’s prerogative, hould till be ued and executed. And, as no uch review has yet been perfected, upon this tatute now depends the authority of the canon law in England.

for the canons enacted by the clergy under James I, in the year 1603, and never confirmed in parliament, it has been olemnly adjudged upon the principles of law and the contitution, that where they are not merely declaratory of the antient canon law, but are introductory of new regulations, they do not bind the laity ; whatever regard the clergy may think proper to pay them.

are four pecies of courts in which the civil and canon laws are permitted under different retrictions to be ued. 1.&ensp;The courts of the arch-bihops and bihops and their derivative officers, uually called in our law courts chritian, , or the eccleiatical courts. 2.&ensp;The military courts. 3.&ensp;The courts of admiralty. 4.&ensp;The courts of the two univerities. In all, their reception in general, and the different degrees of that reception, are grounded intirely upon cutom; corroborated in the latter intance by act of parliament, ratifying thoe charters which confirm the cutomary law of the univerities. The