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benefit of clergy, formerly a useful device for avoiding the death penalty in English and American criminal law. In England, in the late 12th century, the church succeeded in compelling Henry II and the royal courts to grant every clericus, or “clerk” ( i.e., a member of the clergy below a priest), accused of a capital offense immunity from ...
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In English law, the benefit of clergy ( Law Latin: privilegium clericale) was originally a provision by which clergymen accused of a crime could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead in an ecclesiastical court under canon law.
May 29, 2018 · benefit of clergy was fought for by Archbishop Thomas Becket and conceded by Henry II in 1176 in the aftermath of Becket's murder. It exempted clergy from trial or sentence in a secular court on charges arising from a range of felonies and offences.
Benefit of clergy was a legal plea available to clergymen beginning in medieval times. It was intended to spare clerics accused of capital crimes from the extremely harsh judgments of the secular courts, which routinely sentenced people to death for seemingly minor infractions.
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Jan 29, 2023 · Course. 866 views. Benefit of Clergy in the Middle Ages. The benefit of clergy originated from legal practices during the late stages of the Roman Empire. After the empire had converted to...
To claim ‘benefit of the clergy’, an individual had to read a verse from Psalm 51 in the Bible. In medieval England it was only priests and churchmen who could read.
Legal Terms and Concepts > 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.
