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
EDM
CAN^.
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!”
[Illustration: 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.”