In the period under investigation the Catholic Church had jurisdiction not only in spiritual (spirituales) and churchly (ecclesiastica) matters, but also, partly in competition and partly in cooperation with the secular authorities, over matrimonial matters which, until 1783, were numbered among the causae mixti fori. The broad definition of the term “matrimonial matters” exemplifies the claim the Catholic Church had on being the court instance for all matters pertaining to matrimony.