The restoration of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in 1660–1 was accompanied by a renewal of criticism of its activities. Tracts were written extolling the supremacy of Parliament over the church, questioning the legality of excommunication and urging those who were cited to appear before the church courts to resist such demands by seeking prohibitions from King's Bench or Common Pleas. Bills attempting to curb clandestine marriages became a regular feature of parliaments from 1666 onwards, providing opportunities on occasion for critics to berate the church courts. In discussing the bill of 1678, for example, one member of the Commons complained that ‘a suit about clandestine Marriage may depend in the Ecclesiastical Courts three or four years, and scarce be decided in that time’, adding, ‘I would have the Tryal of clandestine Marriages be at Common Law.’ Another member urged that a clause be added to this bill attempting to speed up their proceedings.

Complaints about real or alleged abuses in the practices of the courts were made in parliament at decadal intervals. A bill ‘concerning regulating the Ordinaries, and abuses in Ecclesiastical Courts’ was offered to the Commons in 1671. Petitions ‘against several Proceedings of Ecclesiastical Courts’ were referred to a Commons committee in 1680. A committee of the Lords appointed to investigate irregularities in Westminster Hall was also urged in 1689 to investigate ‘what is fit to be redressed in the Ecclesiastical Courts’.