Inquisition and the Ecclesiastical courts.

Inquisition is an official investigation, especially one of the political or religious natures. Inquisition can also be considered as a severe interrogation often violating the rights or privacy of an individual. Ecclesiastical courts are tribunals set up by religious authorities to deal with disputes among clerics or laymen. In the early periods in history, the ecclesiastical courts often had a degree of temporal jurisdiction and in the Middle Ages the courts of the Roman Catholic Church competed with the activist courts in power. Ecclesiastical courts had jurisdiction over issues like marriage, separation, wills and legitimacy. The courts also claimed authority over clergy accused of most types of crimes. The church courts had jurisdiction over all disputes concerning discipline or administration of the church property claimed by the clergy or ecclesiastical corporate bodies, taxes, questions touching on oaths, vows and heresy. The special ecclesiastical court of the Inquisition was employed, and lay rulers were obliged under pain of exclusion from the Christian community, to pass the most severe sentences. In England today the ecclesiastical courts exercise jurisdiction in civil cases concerning church buildings and in criminal cases in which clergymen are accused of ecclesiastical crimes.