Benefit of Clergy

in law, the exemption of clergymen from trial by the courts of the people. During the Middle Ages the church had a complete system of courts. Trials were conducted by or under authority of archdeacon, bishop, archbishop, and pope. Appeals might be carried on up to a church council. Each cathedral had its church court and an army of officers. Cases involving marriage, inheritance and usury might be brought before these courts; but especially cases of church discipline and, what is to the point, charges against the clergy, clerks, friars, and all other persons connected in a clerical capacity with the service of the church. These courts did not claim the power of life and death. They were milder than the popular courts. Penance, fines, and degrading from rank were imposed rather than stripes, the pillory, or imprisonment. As a natural consequence, priests brought up before the ordinary courts claimed "benefit of clergy" and were turned over to the court of the church. The existence of church courts was not without a parallel in the courts of certain guilds.

The system was not without its good side, but abuses grew up. Unworthy persons took holy orders for the protection afforded. The country swarmed with "holy clerks," who were engaged in other occupations. In a day when few learned to read, the ability to read a line or two even with the whispered connivance of a court officer, was sufficient at times, especially if supported by a few pounds, shillings, and pence, to prove title to benefit of clergy and set an arrant knave free. The benefit of clergy, in fact, was extended, as the principle worked out, to all persons who could read and write, and became a gross parody on justice,--a means where by the law rested lightly on the well-to-do and grievously on the poor man.

In England the first recognition of the benefit of clergy appears in the statutes of Edward I, 1274. The privilege was modified in the reign of Henry VIII, and was repealed wholly in 1827, during the reign of George IV. Benefit of clergy was recognized by the early codes in the American colonies.