Court of Faculties - Definition and Overview

Under English ecclesiastical law, the Court of Faculties is the tribunal of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and is attached to the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The court:

1. creates rights as to pews, monuments, and rights of burial;
2. grants licenses such as marriage licenses, a faculty to erect an organ in a parish church, to level a churchyard, or to exhume bodies buried in a church cemetery. These rights are granted under 25 Hen VII c. 21; and
3. issues notaries public, after the passage of the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533 (UK), which was a direct result of the Reformation in England. Notaries public in some Commonwealth jurisdictions such as Victoria, Australia are still appointed through the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury by the Court of Faculties.

See also ecclesiastical court.