"Benefit of Clergy."

During the Middle Ages, in most European countries, the "benefit of clergy" exempted clergymen from punishment under the civil law in all cases. In England, however, such impunity was not carried beyond exemption from capital punishment for felony and petty treason; it was never granted in cases of high treason, or offences below felony. Offences were thus divided between those which were clergyable and those not clergyable. This exemption, at first granted only to clergymen, was extended to all the officers and clerks of the Church, and finally to all who could read, the ability to read being confined almost entirely to those in the service of the Church. But when learning became more general, a distinction was made between the clergy and the laity who could read, the laity being allowed the privilege only once, and they were branded in the left thumb. A woman, unless she were a peeress, could not claim this exemption. At first, the criminals who were allowed this privilege were handed over to the Bishop to be dealt with according to the canons of the Church; but in the reign of Elizabeth, it was enacted that they could be detained in prison, at the discretion of the court, for a year; by subsequent statutes, various punishments, such as whipping, fine, and imprisonment, were imposed on criminals entitled to "benefit of clergy." Whenever Parliament desired to make an offence strictly capital, the words "without benefit of clergy" were introduced into the enactment. The "benefit of clergy" was finally abolished in the year 1700; its retention for so long a time was plainly owing to the fact that it could be used to mitigate the rigor of the English Law. The enactment was based upon the text--"Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm" (I Chron., XVI., 22). The portion of Scripture selected as a test of their ability to read was the first verse of the fifty-first Psalm, commencing Miserere mei! This passage, which was read by a criminal to save himself from being hanged, was called "The Neck-verse."