Court of High Commission

[4] The court made a short reprise during the reign of James II in 1686, until it was disbanded for the last time by the Bill of Rights.

[1] During Elizabeth's reign, the Court of High Commission would expand its jurisdiction to hear appeals in response to the increasing litigiousness of Elizabethan England.

"[9] This meant that by using the supreme power of the crown, the consent of the Parliament, and the doctrine of ex officio mero, as defined by Marklund as: "by virtue of the 'mere office' of the judge—[he may] proceed on his own initiative against a person even though no public accusation had been made—.

[5]Clegg also argued that towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, the Court of High Commission's critics grew considerably.

As noted by Eric Josef Carlson, "As early as 1566, the commissioners had, rather than ordering cohabitation as was usual in these cases, sanctioned a 'cooling off period' during which one couple could continue to live apart."

It is important to note that Carlson states the following: "the commissioners stopped well short of creating a new form either of divorce or of permanent legal separation.