94 A DORSET ROYAL PECULIAR. 



against ecclesiastical laws and effected the separation of 

 ecclesiastical from temporal courts, that after the Conquest 

 the independent authority of the archdeacons became largely 

 increased. And it was apparently with the object of limiting 

 this power of the archdeacons that the office of Official was 

 created in the twelfth century. 



The Ecclesiastical Courts were fourfold : 



1. Provincial Courts, under the Archbishops and their 

 officials. 



2. Diocesan, or Consistory, Courts, under the Bishops and 

 Chancellors. 



3. Archdeacons' Courts, supplemented by the Agency of 

 Rural Deans. 



4. Courts of Exempt Jurisdiction, and Peculiars. 



The Jurisdictions Peculiar, and exempt from the Diocesan, 

 were again fourfold. 



1. Royal Peculiars. ' The King's Free Chapel is a royal 

 peculiar, exempted from all spiritual jurisdiction, and 

 referred to the immediate government of the King." 

 (Wood's Institute 530.) 



2. Archbishops' Peculiars. Wherever the Archbishop 

 had an estate belonging to him, he had sole jurisdiction 

 as Ordinary. 



3. Peculiars of certain Deans and Chapters e.</.,*Salisbury, 

 Lichfield, and St. Paul's. 



4 . Peculiars which or dinar ily belonged to certain Monasteries . 



The Royal Peculiars in Dorset, as given by Hutchins, were : 



1. Wimborne Minster, of which presently. 



2. Corfe Castle, which .probably derived its peculiar 

 jurisdiction from Shaftesbury Abbey, to which the 

 advowson of the rectory formerly belonged. It 

 appears to have been, in reality, a Monastic and not a 

 Royal Peculiar. 



* The Dean of Salisbury instituted and inducted to 37 parishes in 

 Dorset, the churches of which were " peculiar " under his jurisdiction. 



