Description
From the first centuries […] the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was exercised by the bishops. […] Everything [fell] within [this] jurisdiction. […] [W]hen the Church was persecuted by the Romans and had no contact with the State authorities, the jurisdiction of the Church was not exercised only in respect of matters relating to the ecclesiastical life and behaviour of its members, but was extended to all differences arising either [from] their ecclesiastical and religious or their social and civil relations. Such disputes were not referred to the non-Christian authorities […] but were examined, solved and decided by their own ecclesiastical authorities in accordance with the Christian precepts, mainly contained in the New Testament and the religious traditions.