| Description | There are two series of bishop's act books, corresponding to the two main divisions of ecclesiastical jurisdiction - instance, and office or correction. The first of these was jurisdiction between parties - 'at the instance' of one party against another; the procedure in this type of case was long drawn out, every case having to pass through a number of set stages or acts, on successive court days, each act being supported by a separate series of court papers which contained the substance of the case, so that the entry in the act book is often very uninformative. The second type was 'the office of the judge' against a party; this could be dealt with either in a summary way, and in this case usually arose from presentments at visitations; or it could be dealt with as with instance. There was a large group of cases - chiefly relating to probate, but also to matrimonial matters, sequestrations, simony, faculties (especially from the latter part of the 18th century onwards), and other more or less administrative matters - which formed another section or division of jurisdiction, the individual acts in these cases being headed 'Negotium'. Both the instance and office series include negotia, but especially the former. The instance series also includes a certain number of purely administrative acts, such as applications for marriage licences, appointments of commissary, proctors, registrars and other officers , etc, and the volumes include many office causes. The bishop's court was usually held before the official principal or, in the 17th century, the chancellor; but the same person might hold these offices (and also that of vicar general). If there was a vacancy in the bishopric, or if the courts were held as the result of a metropolitical visitation, as in vols. 26 and 40 (instance), or 6 and 7 (office), the judge was the commissary of the archbishop. Sometimes, especially up to the end of the 16th century, the judge was the bishop himself, and the court was held in the palace, the causes often being office ones. Normally the court was held in the Cathedral but sometimes, especially with office jurisdiction, it was held in a private house in the Close; or, again especially with office jurisdiction, the courts were held in another town in the diocese, in a church, inn or private house. The volumes have at some time been kept in bad conditions. Where the original covers survive, the title given on them has been included in the description of the volumes; but many of the covers have been lost, in some cases pages or sections are missing or may have become misplaced, and in others, all that survives of a volume is one or two sections. |