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Benefit of clergy   /bˈɛnəfɪt əv klˈərdʒi/   Listen
noun
Benefit  n.  
1.
An act of kindness; a favor conferred. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits."
2.
Whatever promotes prosperity and personal happiness, or adds value to property; advantage; profit. "Men have no right to what is not for their benefit."
3.
A theatrical performance, a concert, or the like, the proceeds of which do not go to the lessee of the theater or to the company, but to some individual actor, or to some charitable use.
4.
Beneficence; liberality. (Obs.)
5.
pl. Natural advantages; endowments; accomplishments. (R.) "The benefits of your own country."
Benefit of clergy. (Law) See under Clergy.
Synonyms: Profit; service; use; avail. See Advantage.


Clergy  n.  
1.
The body of men set apart, by due ordination, to the service of God, in the Christian church, in distinction from the laity; in England, usually restricted to the ministers of the Established Church.
2.
Learning; also, a learned profession. (Obs.) "Sophictry... rhetoric, and other cleargy." "Put their second sons to learn some clergy."
3.
The privilege or benefit of clergy. "If convicted of a clergyable felony, he is entitled equally to his clergy after as before conviction."
Benefit of clergy (Eng., Law), the exemption of the persons of clergymen from criminal process before a secular judge a privilege which was extended to all who could read, such persons being, in the eye of the law, clerici, or clerks. This privilege was abridged and modified by various statutes, and finally abolished in the reign of George IV. (1827).
Regular clergy, Secular clergy See Regular, n., and Secular, a.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Benefit of clergy" Quotes from Famous Books



... the cause ought to be tried in the secular or episcopal courts; and that in the latter case a civil officer should be present to report the proceedings, and the defendant, if he were convicted in a criminal action, should lose his benefit of clergy. This, however it might be called for by the exigencies of the times, ought not to have been termed an ancient custom. It was most certainly an innovation. It overturned the law as it had invariably stood from the days ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume VI. • Various
... I, chapter iii, Sec 3; New York, 1906.] In state after state it has been found just to treat differently the patrician, the plebeian, the slave, the man, the woman, the priest. In the very state to which Butler belonged, benefit of clergy could be claimed, up to relatively recent times, by those who could read. The educated criminal escaped hanging for offences for which his illiterate neighbor had to ...
— A Handbook of Ethical Theory • George Stuart Fullerton
... handle at each end, which little Abe had to help him use. It was a sorrowful task for the young lad, for Abe must have known that he would soon be helping his father make his mother's coffin. They buried the Sparrows under the trees "without benefit of clergy," for ministers came seldom to that ...
— The Story of Young Abraham Lincoln • Wayne Whipple


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