BENEFIT OF CLERGY. This expression relates to happily a former state of the law of England, which at once shows the power of clergy and the ignoriiii(e of the peo pie: It was otherwise called prit•legium clerincee, and in the daysof its real meaningond force, the benefit or privilege meant little short of the total exemption of the clerical onler, in respect of crimes and offenses, from the jurisdiction and authority of the her magistrate—an exemption pretended to be founded upon the text of Scripture, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no burnt." The only exception to this was the priest being held in by the king himself; but even in that case, he could only remain in such regal with the pleasure and consent of the bishop, lab° had entire control over his person, and over the inquiry into his offense. If a priest or '• clerk" happened to be imprisoned by the secular arm, ou a criminal charge or capital felony, he was, on the bishop's demand. to be delivered up without any further inqui sition; indeed, to be let loose upon the country, but to be detained by the ordinary, till he had either purged himself from the offense, or, having failed to do so, bad been degraded; and this state of things continued till the reign of Henry VI., when it was settled that the prisoner should first be arraigned, and might either then claim his 13. of C. by plea declining the jurisdiction, or, as was Most usually prIcticed. after 'convic tion, by way of arresting judgment. The test of admission to this singular privilege was the clerical dress and tonsure; and a story is toil of one William de Missy, a ser geant-at-law, 1259 A.D. (the practicing lawyers then were all priests), who. being called to account for his great knavery and malpractices, claimed the benefit of his orders or clergy, which till then remained an entire secret, and to this end wished to untie hiscoif, that he might sltow that he had the clerical tonsure; but this was not permitted, and the bystanders seizing him. not by the coif, but by the throat, dragged him to prison. See 1 Stephen, p. 17. But in course of time a much wider and more comprehensive crite rion was established. all who could read, whether of the clergy or laity—a mark of great
learning itt those days—and therefore capable of becoming clerks, being allowed the privilege. But laymen could only claim it once, and upon so doing, were burned on the band, and discharged; to be again tried, however, by the bishop, whose invest gallon usually resulted in an acquittal, which, although the offender had con victed by his country, or perhaps by his own confession, had the effect of restoring, him to his liberty, his credit, and his property—in fact, the episcopal acquittal so entirely whitewashed him, that in the eye of the law be became a new and innocent person. The mode in which the test of reading was applied was as follows: On conviction, the felon demanded his clergy, whereupon a book (commonly a psaller) was - put • into his hand, which he was required toyead, when the judge demanded of the bishop's com missary, who was present, Legit td clericits? and upon the answer to this question de pended the convict's fate: if it were simply legit, the prisoner was burned on the hand, and discharged; but if non legit, he suffered the punishment due to his offense. But by 5 Anne, c. 6, the 11. of C. was extended to all persons convicted of offenses, whether they could read or not; and by the same statute and several subsequent ones, instead of burning on the band, a discretionary power was given to the judge to inflict a pecuniary fine or imprisonment. But all further attempts to modify and improve the law on this subject proving impracticable, the B. of C. was at last totally abolished, by the 7 and 8 Geo. IN'. c. 28; and now by the 4 and 5 'Viet. c. 22, the state is the law with regard to the peers.
This privilege had never any existence or legal meaning in Scotland; and a learned writer on the law of th it country complains of its introduction into a statute applicable to Scotland (Hutchison's Justice of the Peace in Scotland, vol. ii., p. 101). See un the subject of this article generally, Kerr's Blackstone, vol. iv., p. 412; Hale's Pleas of the Crown, part 2, c. 45; and Reeves's llietory of the English Law.