thumb|244x244px|Queen Elizabeth IThe Court of High Commission was the supreme ecclesiastical court in England, from the inception of King Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy in 1534 to 1689, with periods of time where there was no court activity, like in 1641, when Parliament disbanded the court with the Triennial Act. John Whitgift, the Archbishop of Canterbury, obtained increased powers for the court by the 1580s. He proposed and had passed the Seditious Sectaries Act 1593, making Puritanism an offence.

The court reached the height of its powers during the Reformation. It was dissolved by the Long Parliament in 1641. The court was convened at will by the sovereign, and had near unlimited power over civil as well as church matters. There were also Scottish Courts of High Commission which vied with the General Assembly and lower church courts for authority. The court made a short reprise during the reign of James II in 1686, until it was disbanded for the last time by the Bill of Rights.

In Caudrey's Case, common law judges would confirm the High Commission's legitimacy to act as a court, High Commission for Ecclesiastical Causes presiding not only over religious practices, but also many aspects of marriages and marriage related offenses. Opposition persisted among legal commentators, including Edward Coke, even after the ruling in Caudry's Case. The crown's newly legitimized power to prosecute "altered the barrier between public interest and private conscience." This meant that by using the supreme power of the crown, the consent of the Parliament, and the doctrine of , as defined by Marklund as: "by virtue of the 'mere office' of the judge—[he may] proceed on his own initiative against a person even though no public accusation had been made—".

alt=Oil painting of King Charles I of England. In his left hand he holds a pair of leather gloves. He is wearing a dark blue velvet cape, the left shoulder bearing a large white star with the red cross of St George in the middle. His face is very angular with a long chin accompanied by a wispy moustache and goatee and long curly hair falling over a white lace collar.|thumb|King Charles I, by [[Anthony van Dyck|left|upright=0.8]]

Dissolution

The Court of High Commission was dissolved by the Triennial Act 1640 (16 Cha. 1. c. 1), passed by Parliament in 1641. The Triennial Act required that the Crown summon Parliament every three years. It also impeached Archbishop William Laud, who had been supported by Charles I. Laud's new ideas and prayers had upset the Scots, and when Charles was refused an army from Parliament, which did not trust him, he created his own. This led in part to the English Civil War.

References

Sources

  • 'High Commission, Court of' [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9040397], retrieved 4 August 2005
  • The Glorious Revolution of 1688 [https://web.archive.org/web/20050816130723/http://www.lawsch.uga.edu/~glorious/chron.html], retrieved 4 August 2005
  • ' A History of the Woodforde Family from 1300' [https://web.archive.org/web/20051004085932/http://www.woodforde.co.uk/page26.htm], retrieved 4 August 2005
  • Dutton, Richard (1991). Mastering the Revels: The Regulation and Censorship of English Renaissance Drama, London: Palgrave Macmillan

Further Readings

Roland G. Usher, The Rise and Fall of the High Commission, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1968 (1st edn. 1913).