An
ecclesiastical court, also called
court Christian or
court spiritual, is any of certain
courts having
jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the
Middle Ages in many areas of Europe these courts had much wider powers than before the development of
nation states. They were experts in interpreting
Canon law, a basis of which was the
Corpus Juris Civilis of
Justinian which is considered the source of the
civil law legal tradition.