a power or authority, which a man has to do justice in cases of complaint made before him. There are two kinds of jurisdiction, the one ecclesiastical, the other secular.

Secular Jurisdiction belongs to the king and his justices or delegates. The courts and judges at Westminster have jurisdiction all over England, and are not restrained to any county or place; but all other courts are confined to their particular jurisdictions, which if they exceed, whatever they do is erroneous. There are three sorts of inferior jurisdictions; the first is tenere placita, to hold pleas, and the plaintiff may sue either there or in the king's courts. Another is the concurrence of pleas, where a right is invested in the lord of the franchise to hold pleas: and he is the only person that can take advantage of it, by claiming his franchise. The third sort is an exempt jurisdiction, as where the king grants to some city, that the inhabitants shall be sued within their city and not elsewhere; though there is no jurisdiction that can withstand a certiorari to the superior courts.

Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction belongs to bishops and their deputies.

Bishops, &c. have two kinds of jurisdiction; the one internal, which is exercised over the conscience in things purely spiritual; and this they are supposed to hold immediately of God.

The other is contentious, which is a privilege some princes have given them in terminating disputes between ecclesiastics and laymen.