ABSTRACT
In addition to administering the regime of private confession, the medieval Church possessed a public system of criminal law. Discipline of the clergy and regulation of the conduct of the laity in matters such as heresy, usury, marriage and blasphemy all came within the Church’s sphere of jurisdiction. Most of the law’s enforcement rested in the hands of diocesan courts. They sought to ensure adherence to the Church’s law, principally by means of excommunication, a sanction which cut off contact between offenders and most other members of society. This chapter describes the Church’s disciplinary jurisdiction. It then assesses the contributions the canon law made to the growth of European criminal law. It mattered in the development of the law of offences against public morals, such as public drunkenness or bigamy; it helped to establish rules of procedural fairness, such as the privilege against self-incrimination; and even today it retains a relevance in the development of alternative criminal sanctions, such as the methods used by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
