UKXKFirirM. 



KFIT OK CLERGY. 



i 



the French revolution a fundamental law of the Gallican Church. By 

 thin treaty the pope gave up hu indefinite claim* to the patronage of 

 benefice*. n>l received a small stipulated patronage in return ; nod the 

 substantial pmrt of the patronage of bishoprics was verted in the crown. 

 The m.lern concordat of I'm- VII. with Napoleon, though destructive 

 of the libel-tie* of the Oallicau Church, doe* not appear, so far as respect* 

 the right of the po|>e to interfere with the patronage of beneficei, to be 

 a material innovation upon the concordat of Francis I. [CONCORDAT.] 



For the numerotu abuses with respect to the patronage, acquisition. 

 and traumnimon of benefices that prevailed in the Roman Catholic 

 Church, especially in Italy, during the 15th and 16th centuries, see 

 . r 1'aul'H ' Trwitise oii Benefices,' cap. 44-46. 



HKNK.rTrll'M, a I-atin word, literally, "a good deed;" also 

 "a favour," " an act of kindness." (' Seneca de Beneficiia,' 1. iii. c. 18.) 

 Thin word hod several technical significations among the Romans. 



When a proconsul, proprietor, or qutostor, returned to Rome from 

 hi province, he first gave in his account* to the treasury ; after which 

 he might also give in the names of such persons as had nerved under 

 him in the province, and by their conduct had deserved well of the 

 state. To do this was expressed by the phrase, " in beneficiia ail 

 tcrarium deferre," " to give into the treasury the names of deserving 

 persona ;" and in the case of certain officers and persona, this was to be 

 done within thirty days after the proconsul, &c., had given in his 

 accounts. The object of this practice was apparently to recommend 

 mich individuals to public notice and attention, and in many caws it 

 would be a kind of introduction to future honours and emoluments. 

 It does not seem quite certain if money was given to those thus 

 recommended in the time of Cicero (Cicero, ' ad Divers.' V. 20. 

 Pro Archia,' 5.) Beneficium, in another sense, means some honour, 

 promotion, or exemption from certain kinds of service, granted by a 

 Roman governor or commander to certain of his soldiers, hence called 

 Beneficiarii. (Csesar, ' de BeUo Civili,' i. 75, iii. 68 ; Sueton. ' Tiber.' 

 1 2 : Festus sub verb. ' Beneficiarii.') Numerous inscriptions given in 

 ( Iruter, snow how common this practice was : in some of them the 

 title is represented by the initial letters B. F., only; Beneficiarius 

 Legati Consularis (li. 4) ; B. F. Proconsulis (cxxx. 5), &c. Under the 

 emperors, beneficia appear to have signified any kind of favours, privi- 

 leges, <>r emoluments granted to a subject by the sovereign ; and 

 Suetonius observes (' Titus,' 8) that all the Ciesara, in conformity with 

 a regulation of Tiberius, considered that, on their accession to the 

 supreme power, all the grants (beneficia) of their predecessors required 

 confirmation, but Titus by one edict, without solicitation, confirmed all 

 grantn of previous emperors. The grants made by the emperors, 

 which were often lands, were entered in a book called the Liber 

 Beneficiorum, which was kept by the chief clerk of benefices, under 

 the care of the Comes Renun Privatarum of the emperor ; or it was 

 kept by a person entitled " A CommentarUs Beneficiorum," or clerk of 

 the benefices, as we learn from a curious inscription in Gruter 

 (in. NX viii. 1 . Thin, which is a monumental inscription, is in memory 

 of M. Ulpius Plucdirnus, who among other offices held that of clerk of 

 benefices to Trajan : the monument was erected in the reign of 

 Hadrian, A.D. 131, by Valens 1'huxlimianus, probably one of the same 

 family, who styles himself wardrobe-keeper (a veste). 



Beneficium, in the civil law, signifies any particular privilege : thus 

 it is said (' Dig.' i. 4. 3.) that the beneficium of the emperor must be 

 interpreted very liberally ; and by the Julian law, de bonit cedendi*, a 

 debtor was said to receive the benefit (beneficium) of not lieing taken 

 to prison. (C. vii. 71, 1.) 



Beneficium, among the writers of the middle ages, signified any 

 grant of land from the fiscus, that is, the private possessions of the 

 king or sovereign, or any other person, for life ; so called, says Ducange, 

 because it was given out of the mere good will (beneficium) and 

 that liberality of the grantor. But it is evident, from what we have said, 

 this kind of grant was called beneficium after the fashion of the grants 

 of the Roman emperors ; a view which has been supported directly by 

 Palgrave (' Rise and Progress of the British Constitution,' vol. i. p. 356) 

 and indirectly by Hal lain, who, in the first volume of ' The History of 

 Europe during the Middle Ages,' c. ii., has controverted with great 

 force and learning the position of nearly all the old writers on the 

 feudal system, that benefices were originally precarious ami revoked at 

 pleasure by the sovereign. A beneficiary grant in the middle ages 

 appears to have been properly a grant for life, that is, a grant to the 

 individual, and accordingly corresponds to lumfrurlnt, an, I is opened to 

 imjirittnt. The name beneficium, as applied to a feudal grant, was 

 afterwards changed for that of feud urn ; and the terms Ix-ncKcinin and 

 feudum are often used indifferently in writings which treat of feuds 

 . For further remarks on the term beneficium, see Ducange. 

 ' Glosaarium,' 4c.; Hotman, ' Commentarius Verborum Juris, Opem.' 

 l.ugil. fol. 1599 : and Sptlman 'on Fetidn,' c. iii. 



Ml "I ci.KKOY. The privilege or exemption thus called 

 h-vl its origin in the regard which was jmid by the various sovereigns 

 of Europe to the early Christian Church, and in the endeavours of the 

 popes to withdraw the clergy altogether from secular jurisdiction. In 

 England, these attempts, being vigorously resisted by our earlier kings 

 after the Conquest, only succeeded partially and in two ]rticnlar 

 instances: namely, in procuring, 1. the exemption of places conse- 

 crated to religious purposes from arrests for crimes, which was the 

 origin of sanctuaries [SAXortURYj ; and, 2. the exemption of clergy- 



men in certain cases from criminal punishment by secular judges. 

 From the Utter exemption came the benefit of clergy, which arose 

 when a person indicted for certain offence* pleaded that he was a clerk 

 or otnjman, and claimed his i>nrilr>/inm tlrrifalt. Upon this plea 

 and claim the ordinary appeared and demanded him ; a jury was then 

 summoned to inquire into the truth of the charge, and according to 

 their verdict the accused was delivered to the ordinary, either n- 

 or omrirt, to undergo canonical purgation, and then to lie discharged 

 or punished according to the result of the purgation. Thin privilege, 

 however, never extended to high treason nor to offences ii"t . 

 and wherein the punishment would not affect the life or limb ,.t the 

 offender (qua mm tan : runt rittnn ct memlirHm). It is .-.insular tliat 

 before the stat. 844 Will. 111., which cxprc^ly includes them, thi- 

 privilege of clergy never extended by the KnglUh law to women, 

 although, by the canon law, nuns were exempted from tem|.nil 

 jurisdiction. 



In the early period of our history, the benefit of clergy 

 all,.e.l, unless the prisoner appeared in hi* clerical hal.it uml t<>i 

 but in process of time, as the original object ,.f tin- privi!.^ 

 gradually lost sight of, this ceremony was considered unneceasni 

 the only proof of clergy required was his showing to the satisfaci 

 the court that he could read ; a rare accomplishment, except among the 

 clergy, previously to the 15th century. The consequence was, that at 

 length all persons who could read, whether clergymen or lay clerks, as 

 they were called in some ancient statutes, were admitted to the benefit 

 of clergy in all prosecutions for offences to which the privilege ex- 

 tended. The mode in which this test of reading was applied is thus 

 described by Sir Thomas Smith, in his ' Commonwealth of Kugland,' 

 written hi 1565. " The bishop," says he, " must send one with autho- 

 rity under his seal to be a judge in that matter at every gn,.l delivery. 

 If the condemned man dcmandeth to be admitted to his book, the 

 judge commonly giveth him a Psalter, and tumeth to what place he 

 will. The prisoner readeth so well as he can (God knowcth sometime 

 very slenderly), then he (the judge) asketh of the bishop's comin 

 Leijit ill drririw ! The commissary must say Irtjil or mm lj!l. for 

 these be words formal, and our men of law be very precise in their 

 words formal. If he say legit, the judge proceeded, no further to 

 sentence of death; if he say non, the judge forthwith proceeded] t., 

 sentence." 



The clergy, however, do not appear to have universally adi. 

 that the mere fact of a prisoner's ability to read was to be taken nx 

 a conclusive proof of bis clerical character. A curious case is rci 

 in the ' Year Book,' 34 Hen. VI. 49 (1455), which greatly ptuosl. 

 judges : A man indicted of felony claimed the benefit of elern ; upon 

 which the archdeacon of We.,tuim-t. -r Al.K-v was sent f'.r, who 

 showed him a book, in which the felon read well and fluently, 

 hearing this, the court ordered him to be delivered to the archdeacon 

 on behalf of the ordinary; but the archdeacon refused to take him, 

 alleging that the prisoner was not a clerk. This raised a serious ditti- 

 culty; and the question was one of particular importance to the 

 prisoner, as the judges deliberated whether he must not of ne, 

 be hanged. He was, however, remanded to prison, and the subjaol 

 was much discussed by the judges for several terms ; but, luckily for 

 the culprit, the conscientious archdeacon being removed, his successor 

 heard the prisoner read, and consented to receive him ; whereupon he 

 was delivered to the ordinary, the judges saying " that in fn 

 rite et librrtatit ccrlttiir, even where a man had once failed to read, 

 and had received sentence of death, they would allow him his I 

 of clergy, under the gallows, if he could then read, and was receive. 1 !.\ 

 the ordinary." Another case is recorded in the 'Jl IMw. l\ . , 

 in which a felon read well and audibly in the presence of the whole 

 court; but the ordinary declared ' w lr ; /il nl rleririu for divet 

 xiderations :" upon which judgment was given th.it he should ! 

 hanged; "And so," says the reporter, "he was, ut iiuiliri." ('Year 

 Book,' 21 Edw. IV. 21.) But though a felon might claim the benefit 

 of clergy to the last moment of his life, it was an indictable . 

 to teach him to read for the purpose of saving him. Thus in the 

 7Ric. II.'(1383), the vicar of Round Church in ('antcil.ury was arraigned 

 and tried, " for that by the license of the jailer there, he' had instructed 

 in reading one William Gore, an approver, who at the time of his 

 apprehension was unlearned " (iinriiilitnx in lirturA). 1 1 i\ . r*i ' Kcports,' 

 p. 206.) It may readily be conceived that questi. u the 



t,'iM|H.ral courts and the ordinary would arise as the art of reading 

 became more generally diffused ; and it was probably on this account 

 that an express provision was made by the legislature, in order in some 

 degree to obviate the occurrence of such diiliciiltie*. The statute 

 4 Henry VII. c. 13 (1488), revived the distinction between actual 

 clergymen and such persons as had accidentally acquired a competent 

 skill in reading, by providing that no person once admitted to the 

 benefit of clergy should a second time lx> allowed the same privilege, 

 unless he produced his orders; and to mark those who had once 

 claimed the privilege, the statute enacted that all persons, not in 

 orders, to whom it was so allowed, should I., marked upon the"l,ia\\n 

 ,.i' the left thumb," in the court, before the judge, before such | 

 was delivered to the ordinary. After the offender was thus Imrned in 

 the hand, he was formally delivered to the ordinary to be dealt with 

 according to the ecclesiastical canons, and to make pmv '< i"n l>y und. i 

 going the farce of a canonical trial. This s. took place 



