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单词 benefit of clergy
释义

benefit of clergy


benefit of clergy

n.1. The authorized sanction of a religious rite: cohabiting without benefit of clergy.2. Exemption from trial or punishment in a civil court, given to the clergy in the Middle Ages.

benefit of clergy

n 1. sanction by the church: marriage without benefit of clergy. 2. (Historical Terms) (in the Middle Ages) a privilege that placed the clergy outside the jurisdiction of secular courts and entitled them to trial in ecclesiastical courts

ben′efit of cler′gy


n. 1. the rites or sanctions of a church: living together without benefit of clergy. 2. the medieval privilege of clerics to be tried by ecclesiastic rather than secular courts. [1480–90]
Thesaurus
Noun1.benefit of clergy - sanction by a religious ritebenefit of clergy - sanction by a religious rite; "they are living together without benefit of clergy"sanction - the act of final authorization; "it had the sanction of the church"

benefit of clergy


clergy, benefit of:

see benefit of clergybenefit of clergy,
term originally applied to the exemption of Christian clerics from criminal prosecution in the secular courts. The privilege was established by the 12th cent., and it extended only to the commission of felonies.
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.

benefit of clergy,

term originally applied to the exemption of Christian clerics from criminal prosecution in the secular courts. The privilege was established by the 12th cent., and it extended only to the commission of felonies. The ecclesiastical courts did not inflict capital punishment except in rare cases, in which event those adjudged guilty were turned over to local secular authorities for enforcement of the sentence (see canon lawcanon law,
in the Roman Catholic Church, the body of law based on the legislation of the councils (both ecumenical and local) and the popes, as well as the bishops (for diocesan matters).
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). In the ecclesiastical courts the severest sentences usually were degradation and the imposition of penances. Many criminals posed as clerics to obtain benefit of clergy. In England the privilege was soon extended to all clerks, i.e., literate persons. The ecclesiastical courts lost all jurisdiction over criminal acts in 1576, and thereafter clerics were tried by the secular courts and, under statute law, were either discharged or sentenced to a year's imprisonment. Early in the 18th cent. the reading test was abolished and all persons were allowed to claim this privilege for the first conviction of felony; later the privilege was extended generally to peers and women. Benefit of clergy thus mitigated the severities of English criminal law, which imposed the death penalty for many offenses now deemed trivial. Criminal law was ameliorated in the early 19th cent., and in 1827 benefit of clergy was abolished as being no longer necessary. In the United States it was abolished in 1790 for all federal crimes, and c.1850 it disappeared from the state courts. The term "benefit of clergy" has come in popular usage to mean sanction of the clergy, particularly in the phrase "marriage without benefit of clergy."

Bibliography

See L. C. Gabel, Benefit of Clergy in England in the Later Middle Ages (1929, repr. 1969); J. R. Cameron, Frederick William Maitland and the History of English Law (1961).

benefit of clergy


Related to benefit of clergy: Privilegium clericale

Benefit of Clergy

In old England, the privilege of clergy that allowed them to avoid trial by all courts of the civil government.

Originally members of the clergy were exempted from Capital Punishment upon conviction of particular crimes based on this privilege, but it did not encompass crimes of either high Treason or misdemeanors.

Benefit of clergy existed to alleviate the severity of criminal laws as applied to the clergy. It was, however, found to promote such extensive abuses that it was ultimately eliminated. Benefit of clergy does not exist in the United States today.

The phrase "without the benefit of clergy" is used colloquially to describe a couple living together outside a legal marriage.

benefit of clergy

see CLERGY.

BENEFIT OF CLERGY, English law. An exemption of the punishment of death which the laws impose on the commission of certain crimes, on the culprit demanding it. By modern statute's, benefit of clergy was rather a substitution of a more mild punishment for the punishment of death.
2. It 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 misdemeanors inferior to felony. Vide 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 667 to 668 4 Bl. Com. ch. 28. 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, s. 6.
3. By the Act of Congress of April 30, 1790, it is provided, Sec. 30, that the benefit of clergy shall not be used or allowed, upon conviction of any crime, for which, by any statute of the United States, the punishment is, or shall be declared to be, death.

benefit of clergy


Related to benefit of clergy: Privilegium clericale
  • noun

Words related to benefit of clergy

noun sanction by a religious rite

Related Words

  • sanction
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