Benefit of clergy

Definition of Benefit of clergy

(Law)	See under Clergy.
(Eng., Law)	the exemption of the persons of clergymen from criminal process before a secular judge - a privilege which was extended to all who could read, such persons being, in the eye of the law, clerici, or clerks. This privilege was abridged and modified by various statutes, and finally abolished in the reign of George IV. (1827).

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