Wikipedia
An ecclesiastical court, also called court Christian or court spiritual, is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages in many areas of Europe these courts had much wider powers than before the development of nation states. They were experts in interpreting Canon law, a basis of which was the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian which is considered the source of the civil law legal tradition.
Usage examples of "ecclesiastical court".
I claim benefit of clergy and demand to be tried in an ecclesiastical court.
It follows therefore that, when the crime is not purely ecclesiastical, as is the case with witches because of the temporal injuries which they commit, it must be punished by the Civil and not by the Ecclesiastical Court.
They were going to call me before an ecclesiastical court, only a friend found out and warned me in time.
I demand that you present these specious charges before an ecclesiastical court.
Man, you risk your soul in the hereafter, not to contemplate what will be done to your body if you find yourself taken and brought before an ecclesiastical court.
My oath as a Pandion Knight would be sufficient in any civil or ecclesiastical court.
During the eleventh and twelfth centuries there are few cases of witchcraft in England, and such accusations as were made appeared to have been brought before the ecclesiastical court.
He told us, that, since he came to be minister of the parish where he now is, the belief of witchcraft, or charms, was very common, insomuch that he had many prosecutions before his session (the parochial ecclesiastical court) against women, for having by these means carried off the milk from people's cows.
And it is my understanding that the other two would have been hanged by an ecclesiastical court, had I not been there to do it.
In such cases, it's not unheard of for the ecclesiastical court to find that the accused is a misplaced saint—.