Clergy

The name applicable to ecclesiastical ministers as a class.

The name applicable to ecclesiastical ministers as a class. Clergymen were exempted by the emperor Constantine from all civil burdens. Baronius, ad ami. 319, § 30. Lord Coke says, 2 Inst. 3, ecclesiastical persons have more and greater liberties than other of the king's subjects, wherein to set down all would take up a whole volume of itself. In the United States the clergy is not established by law.

The whole body of clergymen or ministers of religion. Also an abbreviation for "benefit of clergy." See Benefit.

— Regular clergy. In old English law. Monks who lived secundum regulas (according to the rules) of their respective houses or societies were so denominated, in contradistinction to the parochial clergy, who performed their ministry in the world, tn seculo, and who from thence were called "secular" clergy. 1 Chit. Bl. 387, note.

In English law. Persons in holy orders, and in ecclesiastical ofl Sces.

In old English law. The privilege anciently enjoyed by the clergy, otherwise called benefit of clergy, v. Benefit of clergy. The delivery of a clerk to the ordinary, to be kept in prison.

The whole body of clergymen or ininisters of religion. Also an abbreviation for “benefit of clergy.”

Persons in holy orders; ecclesiastics, as a class; also, benefit of clergy. Clergyable. Admitting or entitled to the benefit of clergy. Benefit of clergy. Exemption from capital punishment, anciently allowed to churchmen, and, later, to laymen. Originated in the regard princes had for the church, and the ill use made of that regard. In time, extended to the laity, and made to include all felonies. - The claimant "prayed his clergy." If he could read a psalm correctly (usually, the fifty-first), he obtained a trial before twelve " clerks," q. v. They heardhim on oath, with his witnesses and compurgators, who at tested their belief in his innocence.' Abolished in England by 7 and 8 Geo. IV (1827), c. 28; and in Federal practice by act of April 30, 1790. Was part of the common law of the older States.* Clergyman. See Communication, Privileged, 1.

Persons in holy orders; hence, persons who could read. T. Benefit of clergy.

[L. Lat. c^««.] In English law* That division of the people which comprehends all persons in holy orders, (infra sacros ordines,) and in ecclesiastical offices, as distinguished from the laity, UBl, Com. 376. 3 Steph, Com, 66. See Orders. In old English law. That peculiar privil^e (L. Lat. clerinionia,) anciently enjoyed by the clergy, otherwise called benefit of clergy. See Benefit of clergy. To pray clergy was to claim this privilege, by praying to have a book, so that the prisoner could show that he could read as a clerk, which was the test established. Termes de la ley. 4 Bl, Com. 364, et seq. Dyer, 206. 1 SalL 61.