Ecclesiastical Courts (1857–1867)

Article ten of the Concordat from 1855, completed during the restoration phase, stated that “all ecclesiastical court cases and, in particular those pertaining the faith, the sacraments and the clerical tasks […] belong only to the ecclesiastical courts.” Article ten entrusted the catholic judge with the right to judge “also over marital affairs in accordance with the regulations of holy canon law and the regulations of the edicts of Trent, and to relegate only the civil implications of the marriage to the judges of secular courts.” The property claims which the parties could place against each other are an example of what fell under the category of “civil implications of a marriage”. Whereby, if both parties were in agreement upon it, these matters could also be dealt with at the ecclesiastical court.