AN OLD CONSISTORY COURT
By the Archdeacon of Chester
THE title of this chapter may possibly suggest to the reader that it will unfold some startling records of the proceedings which have been enacted in one of those ecclesiastical institutions called a Consistory Court. Let me at once dispel such anticipation. Though a search into the dusty documents which have accumulated might reveal some interesting details of some cause célèbre, and disclose and hand on to future generations some forgotten page of history, my purpose is much less ambitious, for it is rather with the building and interior arrangement of the Court than with its legal proceedings that I propose to deal.
One of the most interesting features of Chester Cathedral is, that it gives us specimens of every style of architecture, except, indeed, the Saxon. You have Norman work in the remains of S. Anselm’s Church and buildings; exquisite examples of Early English in the Lady Chapel and Chapter House; Decorated and Perpendicular of every period in the Choir, Nave, and great South Transept; and Jacobean in the Consistory Court and in some minor details. It is of the latter that we are about to treat.
The visitor to the Cathedral, as he enters by the south-west porch, may see on his left a plain nail-studded door, reached by three steps, and set in a stone screen surmounted by heavy ornamental masonry of the date of the seventeenth century. The doorway and wall may have been built in the sixteenth century, when the unfinished south-west tower was projected and commenced, but the superincumbent balustrade is at any rate later, and bears the date 1636, and on a small shield the initials “J. B.”—clear indication that it was erected by John Bridgman, who was Bishop of Chester from 1619 to 1650. It is through this door that the Consistory Court, which is, in fact, the basement of the unfinished tower, is reached. Comparatively few visitors to the Cathedral ever see this portion of it. One reason for this may be that it is not under the complete control of the Dean and Chapter like the rest of the building. The Consistory Court is the Bishop’s Court, and the papers contained therein are under his jurisdiction, and it would not do for the general public to be admitted indiscriminately, unless they were stored in safe receptacles. A Consistory Court implies a Bishop; in fact, “a consistory is the court of a Bishop, in which the principle is that he is surrounded by representatives of the clergy of his diocese, who act as his council. In modern times, however, the Consistory Courts of Bishops are held by deputy, the Chancellor of the diocese or one of his surrogates being the sole representatives of the Bishop and clergy.” Until the foundation of the See of Chester in 1541 there would, of course, be no Consistory Court in Chester, unless, indeed, the Bishop of Lichfield, who at one time had a throne or seat in S. John’s Church, ever had one there. When the Abbey Church became the Cathedral of the new See, it would seem that the Lady Chapel was used as the Consistory Court. At any rate it was here that George Marsh was tried and condemned to death in 1554, when George Cotes was Bishop. In The Life of Bridgman there is an allusion to this original position of the Court, when it is stated that Mrs. Bridgman was buried “at the east end of the church, next to the old Consistory Court, which is now called our Ladye’s Chapel.” Whether the Court was moved to the place it now occupies before Bishop Bridgman’s time, I cannot say. He, at any rate, put up the screen (or the upper portion of it) which separates it from the south aisle, as is shown by the date and by the arms of the Bridgman family. The Bishop was responsible for many repairs and improvements in the Cathedral, and “in the Pallace of the Bishop which was in great decay”; and in a manuscript in the University Library at Cambridge, there is a full and interesting account of what he did in this respect. Curiously enough no mention is made of this screen or of the fittings of the Court, and yet both undoubtedly were due to him, and erected in his time. He may have rightly thought that the basement of this tower at the west end of the church was a more seemly and fitting place for the holding of a Court, even though the business conducted there was ecclesiastical, than the chapel at the east, which was designed and used for the most sacred offices of religion. It may be said here that it is not an uncommon thing for the Consistory Court to be a portion of the Cathedral. This is the case at Carlisle, Durham, Chichester, Hereford, Lichfield, Llandaff, Peterborough, Ripon, and Winchester (and this list may not be exhaustive), though the exact position of the Court in the church varies considerably.
On entering the Court, the visitor cannot fail to be struck with the old-world scene before him as he looks upon the fittings, which were put up 270 years ago. There is a square enclosure, surrounded by a partition of oak some four feet high. To this there are entrance-doors at each corner. Inside a seat is fixed all round this partition, the central space being filled with a large square table covered with a green cloth. At the west side, reached by three steps, is the raised seat for the Chancellor, with a desk in front of it. The seat is sufficiently wide for two persons, so that the Chancellor might have an assessor by his side. The judgment-seat is flanked on either side by another seat with a smaller desk before it. It is rendered imposing by an elongated oak canopy with a carved cornice and by the Jacobean panelling which supports it. The cornice is, unfortunately, not quite perfect. A portion is missing on the south side, and on the north a piece has been cut away. The arms of the Bridgman family are to be seen in one of the centre panels, thus proving that the Bishop was responsible for its erection, and on the imperfect panel on the north side are the letters
These, no doubt, refer to Edmund Mainwaring, LL.D., who is styled by Sir Peter Leycester, “Chancellor of Chester in 1642,” though his patent is not in the office. It shows that the seat was intended for the Chancellor, and that it was originally constructed for the position it now occupies. At the north-east corner of the enclosure is a perched-up seat resting on the top of the oak partition which surrounds the enclosure. Any person who sat in it would have to mount upon the seat which surrounds the table, and to use it as a resting-place for his feet. It does not look a very safe position. We are left to conjecture for whom this seat was intended. It may have been for the defendant (perhaps a notorious evil-doer) in ecclesiastical suits or for the witness who was to be examined. In either case the seat was an uncomfortable one, and the occupant would certainly be under close observation. As we look upon these fittings, black with the lapse of years, one is tempted to think how much they would be improved by careful and judicious cleaning. The seat referred to is evidently of the same date as the other fittings, but it is never occupied now, though the Court is used regularly, and the Chancellor or his deputy sits on days duly advertised to hear applications for faculties. It may be doubted whether there is any other Court in England which has a similar experience, and of which it can be said that the seating and arrangements are identical with what existed nearly 300 years ago. I have been told that there is one of the same kind at Lincoln: if that be so, the Chester Consistory Court cannot claim to be an absolutely unique example. The Consistory Court at Lichfield, which is under St. Chad’s Chapel in the south aisle of the Choir, and is probably the oldest part of the building, has in it some curious old Jacobean woodwork, but this is part of the stall work put up after 1661. The Court has been presided over for many years by the Worshipful Chancellor Espin, one of the two clerical Diocesan Chancellors at the present time. I am indebted to him for the following:—“I do not know of any other Court which has preserved its ancient character as ours has. I suspect that some, perhaps many, of the Consistory Courts in the older dioceses have been dismantled. Some years ago, when Bishop Hobhouse was Chancellor of the Diocese of Lichfield, I went to stay with him. He told me that he had been touring about the West of England, and among other places had lionised Gloucester Cathedral. Having been taken round by the verger, he asked next to see the Consistory Court. The verger had never heard of it, and said there was no such place there. Hobhouse insisted, and after some altercation an old verger was sent for who had retired on a pension, and was mouldering away somewhere hard by. He did remember, but said the Court had never been used for many years, in fact, not since 1856. When Hobhouse was taken to the place, he found that all the fittings had been cleared away, and it was made a receptacle for coals and lumber. Alas for the judicature of England! I believe the ancient ‘Alma Curia de Arcubus’ (Court of Arches) is now a cheesemonger’s warehouse.” The Court still retains some relics of its old procedure. The official who opens and adjourns the Court, and who cites all objectors to an application to appear, always begins with the formula, “Oyez, Oyez!” carefully pronounced as “Oh yes, Oh yes!”
Consistory Court, Chester Cathedral.
It has been stated above that the Court is under Episcopal control, and so is not generally seen by visitors to the Cathedral. Any one, however, who is desirous of seeing this “Memorial of Old Cheshire” can do so by applying to the verger in attendance, and will be repaid by his visit, as it is extremely doubtful whether anywhere in England such a venerable specimen of the accessories of a legal court of olden days can be found. The visitor, if gifted with a lively imagination, may people the Court with persons of a former generation, and call up in fancy some keenly-contested suit in connection with Ecclesiastical discipline, or some matrimonial or probate cause. If it should happen that the Court is sitting, he may see the Chancellor hearing applications for faculties, and may possibly note the opposition which is sometimes raised; but he will not be likely to witness such a scene of excitement as recently marked the Consistory Court of a southern diocese. He must be content with hearing the judge give his decision, it may be after a few explanatory remarks, in the words: “The Faculty is decreed in terms of the Citation.”