A distinguished ecclesiastical lawyer, Charles is today best remembered for presiding over the first trial of Oscar Wilde for gross indecency.

In 1868, he appeared as a junior for Mr Charles, who was being tried in the Arches Court with Alexander Mackonochie for ritual practices, and remained involved with subsequent litigation.

Charles applied to the Queen's Bench Division for a writ of prohibition against the Arches Court on the grounds the latter had exceeded its authority: the application was denied by Cockburn CJ and Mellor J, against the dissent of Lush J.

In 1899 he became Dean of the Arches, Master of the Faculties, and Auditor of the Chancery Court of York, succeeding to Lord Penzance, in front of whom Charles had often appeared at the bar.

After the ritualist controversies of previous decades, Charles presided over the ecclesiastical courts during a period of relative quiet.