The judicial trial before the bishop in the first Christian millennium

Abstract

In these pages the author gives some information of the ‘status quaestionis’ about the ‘episcopalis audientia as well as how Jacques Godefroy —a well-known jurist of the XVII Century borned in Geneve from a Calvinist family— carried a lot of weight in the argument about the juridical nature of the ‘episcopalis audientia’institution. In fact, his opinion had a great influence in following experts on this matter.

Keywords: episcopalis audientia; The Sirmondian constitution, Godefroy.