double complaint

double complaint /dabal kampleynt/, double quarrel /"kwohral/ or duplex querela /d(y)uwpleks kwariyla/

A grievance made known by a clerk or other person, to the archbishop of the province, against the ordinary, for delaying or refusing to do justice in some cause ecclesiastical, as to give sentence, institute a clerk, etc. It is termed a "double complaint," because it is most commonly made against both the judge and him at whose suit justice is denied or delayed; the effect whereof is that the archbishop, taking notice of the delay, directs his letters, under his authentical seal, to all clerks of his province, commanding them to admonish the ordinary, within a certain number of days, to do the justice required, or otherwise to appear before him or his official, and there allege the cause of his delay; and to signify to the ordinary that if he neither perform the thing enjoined, nor appear nor show cause against it, he himself, in his court of audience, will forthwith proceed to do the justice that is due. In current usage, a complaint in the nature of an appeal from the ordinary to his next immediate superior, as from a bishop to an archbishop. This complaint is available to a clergyman who, having been presented to a living, is refused institution by the ordinary.

See duplicity