On Sat, 29 Apr 2000, John A W Lock wrote:
> > >what is the law of God that is being transgressed?
> >
> > Well, at the very least, adultery.
>
> adultery was not really the business of the city court from which this
> comes which is why I thought it was a good question for this forum...
>
> there were ecclesiastical courts for adultery and that sort of thing. The
> city court was much more interested in mercantile matters and public order.
> Normally they cite city ordinances as a basis for their jurisdiction. I
> suspect that misrepresentation (never popular with merchants!) is the
> justification here but the 'lawes of god' clause intrigued me at the time
> & the reference to the Rykener case brought it to mind again.
Well, yes and not; certainly the church courts had jurisdiction over
adultery as a 'morals' offence but so did common law and lesser
courts; I know from looking at the town records that in London, Dover,
and Sandwich in this period, the borough courts exercised a
jurisdiction over adultery and fornication.
Abigail
Abigail Ann Young (Dr), Associate Editor/ Records of Early English Drama/
Victoria College/ 150 Charles Street W/ Toronto Ontario Canada
Phone (416) 585-4504/ FAX (416) 585-4594/ [log in to unmask]
List-owner of REED-L <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed-l.html>
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed.html => REED's home page
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