BENEFIT OF CLERGY. In English Law. Au exempt n of the punishment of death which the lows impose on the commis sion of certain crimes, on the culprit de manding it. By modern statutes, benefit of Clergy was rather a substitution of a more mild,punishment for the punishment of death.
A clergyman was exempt from capital punish ment toties polies, as often as, from acquired habit, or otherwise, he repeated the same species of offence; the laity, provided they could read, were exempted only for. a first offence ; for a second, though of an entirely different ngture, they were hanged: Among the laity, however, there was this distinction : peers and peeresses were discharged for their first fault without leading, or any punishment at all; commoners, if of the male sex and readers, were branded in the hand. Women commoners had no benefit of clergy. It occasionally happen( d, in offences committed jointly by a men and a wo man, that the law of gavelkind was parodied,— "The woman to the bough, The man to the plough." Relyng reports, "At the Lent Assizes for Win chester (18 Car. II.) the clerk appointed by the bishop to give clergy to the prisoners, being to give it to an old thief, I directed hint to deal clearly with me, and not to say legit in case he could not read ; and thereupon he delivered the book to him, and I perceived the prisoner never looked on the book at all; and yet the bishop's clerk, upon the demand of or non legit ?' answered, legit.' And thereupon I told him I doubted be was mis taken, and had the question again put to him ; whereupon he answered again, something angrily, 'legit.' Then I bid the clerk of assizes not to re cord it, and I told the parson that he was not the judge whether the culprit could read or no, but a ministerial officer to make a true report to the court; and so I caused the prisoner to be brought near, and delivered him the book, when he con fessed that he could not read. Whereupon I told
the parson that he had unpreached more that day than he could preaoh up again in many days, and I fined him five marks." An instance off humanity is mentioned by Donne, of a culprit convicted of I a non-clergyable offence prompting a convict for a elergyable one in reading his In the ' very curious collection of prolegomena to Coryat's Crudities are commendatory lines by Inigo Jones, whose fame was in building palaces and churches, and not the "lofty rhyme." The famous architect wrote, " Whoever on this book with scorn would look, May he at sessions crave, and want /Lis book." This section is taken from Ruins of Time 'ex emplified in Hale's Pleas of the Crown, by Amos, p. 24. And see, further, 1 Salk. 61.
Benefit of clergy was lately granted, not only to the clergy, as was formerly the case, but to all persons. The benefit of clergy seems never to have been extended to the crime of high treason, nor to have embraced mis demeanors inferior to felony. See 1 Chitty, Cr. Law, 667-668 ; 4 Blackstone, Comm. ch. 28; 1 Bishop, Crim. Law, 622-624. But this privilege improperly given to the clergy, because they had more learning than others, is now abolished, by stat. 7 Geo. IV. c. 28, 8. 6.
By the act. of congress of April 30, 1790, it is provided, 30, that the benefit of clergy shall not be used or allowed upon convic tion of any crime for which, by any statute of the United States, the punishment is; or shall be declared to be. death.