I've recently come across some fictional references to "church trials" of men for striking their wives. Basically the wife would go before the church and complain to the church leaders that her husband had struck her. The church would then deliberate on the circumstances and decide whether the husband was guilty of injustice, and what to do about it. I was surprised, because I'd always assumed that women throughout history had little recourse when such things happened. I'm trying to find out whether such trials often took place, whether the way of dealing with such domestic issues varied by denomination or geographical region, or how the practices changed over time. Any sources would be greatly appreciated.
I don't have any primary documents for you, but I think two works worth looking at are Gowing, Domestic Dangers, and Dunbar, A Fragile Freedom.
Gowing's book is about women's use of church courts in seventeenth century England. She shows that while women may have had trouble bringing suit in the courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas, they were able to use the ecclesiastical courts to their advantage. Hundreds of slander, adultery, fornication, and domestic disturbances cases came before the ecclesiastical courts, and women made up the majority of plaintiffs. Church courts, long thought a place of repression by the scholars of the "enlightenment" were actually quite popular among the middling sort, as it was a less expensive way to adjudicate disputes than the King's normal courts.
Dunbar's work is much narrower, in that she is analyzing an African-American community in antebellum Philadelphia. However, she does talk about how domestic violence and domestic disputes were brought before the elders of the church in a form of trial. There was no legal jurisdiction here, but there was a place for protecting women from violence. Both Gowing and Dunbar make extensive use of the primary documents, and may give you some leads to follow up on.