CLERGY, a general name given to the body of ecclesiastics of the Christian church, in contradistinction to the laity. The privileges and immunities which the clergy of the primitive Christian church enjoyed deserve our notice. In the first place, when they travelled upon neces sary occasions, they were to be enter tained by their brethren of the clergy, in all places, out of the public revenues of the church. When any bishop, or pres byter, came to a foreign church, they were to be complimented with the hono rary privilege of performing divine offi ces, and consecrating the eucharist in the church. The great care the clergy had of the characters and reputations of those of their order appears from hence, that in all accusations, especially against bishops, they required the testimony of two or three witnesses of good charac ter : nor was any heretic admitted as an evidence against a clergyman. With re gard to the respect paid to the clergy by the civil government, it consisted chief ly in exempting them from some kind of obligations to which others were liable, and granting them certain privi leges and immunities which others did not enjoy.
By the ecclesiastical laws, no clergy man was allowed to relinquish his sta tion without just grounds and leave ; but in some cases resignation was allow ed of, as in old age, sickness, or other in-. firmities.
The privileges of the English clergy, by the ancient statutes, are very consid erable ; their goods are to pay no toll in fairs or markets ; they are exempt from all offices but their own ; from the king's carriages, posts, &c. ; from appearing at sheriff's tourns, or frank pledges ; and are not to be fined or amerced according to their spiritual, but their temporal, means. A clergyman acknowledging a statute, his body is not to be imprisoned.
If he be convicted of a crime, for which the benefit of clergy is allowed, he shall not be burnt in the hand ; and he shall have the benefit of the clergy in in .finitunt, which no layman can have more than once.
The clergy, by common law, are not to be burdened in the general charges of the laity ; nor to be troubled nor incum bered, unless expressly named and charged by the statute ; for general words do not affect them : thus, if a hundred be sued for a robbery, the mini ster shall not contribute ; neither shall they he assessed to, the highway, to the watch, &c.
The revenues of the clergy were an ciently more considerable than at pre sent. Ethelwolph, in 855, gave them a tythe of all goods, and a tenth of all the lands in England, free from all secular services, taxes, &c. The charter where by this was granted them, was confirm ed by several of his successors ; and William the Conqueror, finding the bishoprics so rich, created them into baronies, each barony containing thir teen knight's fees at least ; but since the reformation the bishoprics are much im poverished. The revenues of the infe rior clergy, in the general, are small, a third part of the best benefices being anciently, by the Pope's grant, appro priated to monasteries, upon the disso lution whereof they became lay-fees. In deed an addition was made, 2 Arnim, the whole revenues of first.fruits and tenths being then granted, to raise a fund for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor clergy.; pursuant to which a corporation was formed, to whom the said revenues were conveyed in trust, &c.