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Name
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The Ecclesiastical Courts
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Description
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Wilson's courts had jurisdiction over morals, marriages, wills, tithes, and church discipline. Punishments included public penance at the church door, dragging through water, and standing in a white sheet. The courts were a parallel legal system operating alongside the civil courts, not subordinate to them. The Hampton case, the Mary Hendrick adultery case of 1715, and the imprisonment of the Clerk of Rolls all demonstrate two systems of authority in constitutional tension. This was the healthy functioning of a small polity, not a theocratic overreach.
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Active Period
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c.1698-1765
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Type
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Courts
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Jurisdiction
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Source
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Keble
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Train
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DNB
