Canon law of the Anglican Communion

In the Church of England, the ecclesiastical courts that formerly decided many matters such as disputes relating to marriage, divorce, wills, and defamation, still have jurisdiction of certain church-related matters (e.g. discipline of clergy, alteration of church property, and issues related to churchyards).{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/ecclesiastical-court|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|title=Ecclesiastical Court|access-date=7 April 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://academic.oup.com/book/34968/chapter-abstract/298609954?redirectedFrom=fulltext|title=Introduction to English Legal History (5th edn), chapter 8: The Ecclesiastical Courts|first=John |last=Baker|doi=10.1093/oso/9780198812609.003.0008|pages=135–144|date=1 March 2019|access-date=7 April 2025}}

Their separate status dates back to 1072, when the Normans, under King William I, split them off from the mixed secular/religious county and local courts used by the Saxons.{{cite journal|url=https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2399&context=tcl|journal=The Catholic Lawyer |volume=37|number=4|pages=339-342|title=The Courts Christian in Medieval England |first=Peter D. |last=Jason|access-date=7 April 2025}} By the time of "King Richard I, — a distinction was established between Courts Temporal and Courts Ecclesiastical."{{cite web|url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/1857-02-10/debates/03b17a48-6338-4288-a07a-9b8c4580da1c/TheEcclesiasticalCourts|title=The Ecclesiastical Courts: Volume 144: debated on Tuesday 10 February 1857|website=The House of Lords, Parliament, United Kingdom | date=10 February 1857|access-date=7 April 2025}}

The first comprehensive set of canon laws that form the basis of Anglican canon law come from the Canons of Edgar, a set of early eleventh-century ecclesiastical regulations produced in Anglo-Saxon England by Wulfstan, Archbishop of York.{{sfn|Fowler|1972|p=v}} They were in fact not written by King Edgar; but his good governance was inspiration for Wulfstan.{{cite book|pages=681-682|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LSCPAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA682&dq=%22Canons+of+Edgar%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0|title=Key Figures in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia|year=2013|isbn=9781136775185|format=ebook|publisher=Taylor & Francis|first=Richard K.|last= Emmerson|access-date=6 April 2025}}{{cite book|page=|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uEOxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA41&dq=%22Canons+of+Edgar%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0|title=Remembering the Medieval Present: Generative Uses of England’s Pre-Conquest Past, 10th to 15th Centuries|year=2019|isbn=9789004408333|format= ebook|publisher= Brill|first1= Brian T. |last1=O'Camb|first2=Jay Paul |last2=Gates|access-date=6 April 2025}} The Canons of Edgar have been called "a synthesis of church doctrine on pastoral care and clerical behaviour for use by parish priests."{{cite book|pages=86-100|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UXMCEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA85&dq=%22Canons+of+Edgar%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0|title=The Political Writings of Archbishop Wulfstan of York|year=2016|isbn=9781847799678|format= ebook|publisher= Manchester University |first1=Andrew |last1=Rabin|first2=Rosemary |last2=Horrox|first3=Simon |last3=Maclean|access-date=6 April 2025}} Wulfstan's sources included the writings of Aelfric, Theodulf of Orleans, Amalarius of Metz, and Pope Leo IV, as well as the Canons of Chalcedon.{{cite book|pages=145-146|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SpIY9UoYZoEC&pg=RA1-PA146&dq=%22Canons+of+Edgar%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0|title=Notes on the Canons of the First Four General Councils|first=William |last=Bright|year=1882|publisher=Clarendon Press|access-date=6 April 2025}}

In contrast to the other courts of England, the law used in ecclesiastical matters is at least partially a civil law system, not common law, although heavily governed by parliamentary statutes. Since the Reformation, ecclesiastical courts in England have been royal, or "Crown courts."

The teaching of canon law at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge was abrogated by Henry VIII; thereafter practitioners in the ecclesiastical courts were trained in civil law, receiving a Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) degree from Oxford, or a Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree from Cambridge. Such lawyers (called "doctors" and "civilians") were centered at "Doctors Commons", a few streets south of St Paul's Cathedral in London.{{EB1911|wstitle=Doctors' Commons|volume=8|page=367|noprescript=yes}}

Canon law and lawyers dealt with probate, matrimonial, and admiralty cases until their jurisdiction was removed to the common law courts in the mid-19th century.

Other churches in the Anglican Communion around the world (e.g., the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada) still function under their own private systems of canon law.

In 2002 a Legal Advisors Consultation meeting at Canterbury concluded:

(1) There are principles of canon law common to the churches within the Anglican Communion; (2) Their existence can be factually established; (3) Each province or church contributes through its own legal system to the principles of canon law common within the Communion; (4) these principles have strong persuasive authority and are fundamental to the self-understanding of each of the member churches; (5) These principles have a living force, and contain within themselves the possibility for further development; and (6) The existence of the principles both demonstrates and promotes unity in the Communion.Doe, Norman, "The Contribution of Common Principles of Canon to Ecclesial Communion in Anglicanism", [https://www.anglicancommunion.org/media/124862/AC-Principles-of-Canon-Law.pdf The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion], London: The Anglican Communion Office, 2008, p. 97.

• Canon law of the Church of England
• Canon law of the Episcopal Church in the United States

{{Portal|Christianity|Law}}

• Anglicanism
• Canons of Edgar, an 11th century synopsis by Wulfstan
• Ecclesiastical Law Society
• Religious law
• Valid but irregular

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book| last = Fowler | first = Roger | year = 1972 | title = Wulfstan's Canons of Edgar | location = London | publisher = Oxford University Press}}
• {{cite book

|year=1988

|editor1-last=Skyes

|editor1-first=Stephen

|editor2-last=Booty

|editor2-first=John

|title=The Study of Anglicanism

|location=London

|publisher=SPCK

|isbn=978-0-281-04330-9

}}

• {{cite book|author=|year=2008|title=The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion|url=https://www.anglicancommunion.org/media/124862/AC-Principles-of-Canon-Law.pdf|location=London|publisher=The Anglican Communion Office|isbn=978-0-9558261-3-9|access-date=}}
• Timothy Briden. Moore's introduction to English canon law, 4th edn. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.
• {{cite book

|last1=Doe

|first1=Norman

|year=1998

|title=Canon Law in the Anglican Communion: A Worldwide Perspective

|location=Oxford

|publisher=Clarendon Press

|isbn=978-0-19-826782-9

}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canon Law (Anglican Churches)}}

Category:Anglican theology and doctrine