Arches Court

It takes its name from the street-level arched windows of the old crypt of St Mary-le-Bow (Sancta Maria de Arcubus) where the court still sits.

The court used to sit in a large room over the north aisle of the 11th-century crypt adjoining Bow Lane.

[1][2] After the Great Fire it was held in Doctors' Commons and also at 1 The Sanctuary, Westminster and St Paul's Cathedral.

[3] Its permanent home remains St Mary le Bow, where regular sittings include those to confirm the election of each new diocesan bishop in the province.

Appeal lies with the Privy Council, except on matters of doctrine, ritual or ceremony, which go to the Court for Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved.

But by the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 the two archbishops were empowered to appoint a practising barrister or judge as described above.

[3] The official principal of the Arches court is the only ecclesiastical judge who is empowered to pass a sentence of deprivation against a clerk in holy orders.

By an act of Henry VIII (Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Act 1532) the Arches court is empowered to hear, in the first instance, such suits as are sent up to it by letters of request from the consistory court of the bishops of the province of Canterbury, and it is further empowered to accept letters of request from the bishops of the province of Canterbury after they have issued commissions of inquiry under that statute, and the commissioners have made their report.