BEN 



REN 



should not be doli\ored to the ordinary, but be nt oneo dis- 

 charged by the court, with a provision that he might be 

 detained in prison for ony time, not exceeding a year, nt 

 the discretion of the judge before whom he was tried. 



By various statutes passed in the course of the last cen- 

 tury, the court before which an offender was tried and ad- 

 mitted to his clergy were empowered to commute tin- burning 

 in the hand for transportation, imprisonment, or whipping ; 

 and subsequently to the passing of these statutes it is be- 

 l that no instance has occurred of a convict being 

 burned in the hand. 



The practice of calling upon a convicted person to rea<l in 

 order to prove to the court his title to the benefit of clergy 

 continued until a comparatively late period. A case is men- 

 tioned in Kelynge's Reports, p. 51, which occurred in 1666, 

 where the bishop's commissary had deceived the court by 

 reporting, contrary to the fact, that a prisoner could read ,- 

 upon which Chief Justice Kclynge rebuked him severely, 

 telling him that he had unpreached more that day than he 

 could preach up again in many days,' and fined him five 

 marks. At length the statute' of the 5th of Anne, c. 6, 

 enacted that the benefit of clergy should be granted to all 

 those who are entitled to it without requiring them to read ; 

 and thus the 'idle ceremony of reading,' as Mr. Justice 

 Foster justly terms it, was finally abolished. 



The absurd and perplexing distinctions which the conti- 

 nuance of this antiquated and worn-out clerical privilege 

 had introduced, having become extremely detrimental to 

 the due administration of justice, it was enacted by one of 

 the recent statutes for the consolidation and improvement 

 of the criminal law, commonly called Peel's Acts (namely, 

 7 and 8 Geo. IV. c. 28, s. C), ' that benefit of clergy with 

 respect to persons convicted of felony shall be abolished.' 

 Since the passing of this statute, the subject is of no prac- 

 tical importance whatever ; but those who may be inclined 

 to pursue it as a matter of historical curiosity may find the 

 following references useful : Blackstone's Cummenturicx, 

 vol. iv. chap. 'JS ; Hale's Plena nf the Croirn, part ii. c. -15 : 

 Harrington's Observation* H/I An/if nt Statutes; Hobart's 

 Reports, \i. 288. 



BENEFIT SOCIETIES. [See FISM-NIJI.Y SOCIETIES.] 



BENEVE'NTO. a town belonging to tin- Papal State, 

 though geographically enclosed within the province of Prin- 

 cipato Ultra, in ill,' kingdom of Naples. It is situated on 

 a hill at the junction of two valleys, in which the rivers Ca- 

 lore and Sabato flow, and between Mount Taburnus to the 

 west, which separates its territory from the plains of Cam- 

 pania, and the central chain of Apennines to the east, which 

 divides it from the plains of Puglia. The Calore, one or 

 two miles above Benevento, receives the Tamaro which 

 comes from the north from Mount Matese. Alter winding 

 round the northern side of the town, the Calore receives just 

 below it the Sabato which comes from the south, after winch 

 the united streams How to the Volturno above Cajazzo. 

 Benevento is 30 miles N.E. of Naples, in 41 7' N. lat. and 

 14 43' E. long. This town belonged in antient times to 

 the Samnites, and was then called Maleventum, the etymo- 

 logy of which name has been fancifully but not satisfactorily 

 explained by some writers. 



The Caudinc forks, in which the Roman army on its 

 way from Calatia, the modern Cajazzo, to Maleventum, was 

 obliged to surrender to the Samnites, are generally sup- 

 posed to have been between Arpajn and MoBteaMtfaio, on 

 the direct road from Naples to Benevento, although observ- 

 ing travellers had remarked that the localities did not by 

 any means correspond to the description of that rcl<-' 

 defile given by Livy. (See Eustace's Italy, vol. iii. ch. :i.) 

 Cluvenus, however, pointed out a more prolialile spot, in a 

 narrow defile watered by the river Isclerus, which (lows into 

 the Volturno near Duccnta. Late travellers who have ex- 

 amined this defile have confirmed the assertion of Cluverius. 

 The Isclerus, now called the Faienza, a small mountain 

 stream coming from the south-east above Ccrvinara, ci 

 me high road between Arpaja and Montesarchi , and then 

 enters a long and narrow defile between Mount Taburnus 

 and a branch of the Tsfatn ridge, and after passing In M.I 

 jano and Santa Agata dei Goti, enters the plain of the Vol- 

 turno, into which it flows nearly opposite Calatia or Cnjazzo. 

 was the most direct way for the Romans from tlw 

 banks of the Volturno to Muleventum. This pass has two 

 n irrow openings, one near Mojano, and the other near Santa 

 AgaU, with a small plain between, formed by the receding 

 ides nt Mount Tnburnus, while tho valley of 



through which the hinh road passes, has only one narrow 

 defile, and has three openings instead of two. and moreover 

 has no stream miming through n. (Sec a Memoir on the. 

 subject by J. P. Gaudy, in Keppt-1 Craven's Tnur. with a 

 small map of the localities.) The Romans, having after- 

 wards defeated the Samnites. and taken M;.lru ntum, sent 

 a colony there, and changed its name to l!rm\< ntum. The 

 Appian road passed through Bencventuin. [See ANTDM- 

 NUS, ITIXKKARY OK.] The people of Benc\cimun remained 

 firmly attached to Rome during the second Punic \\ar. 



After the fall of the western empire, Bcncunto was 

 subject to the general vicissitudes of barbarian invasions 

 like the rest of Italy, until it was taken in the sixth century 

 by the Ixmgobards, who established here a dukedom, which 

 included all their conquests in Samnium, Campania, and 

 Apulia. The dukes of Benevento, owing to their vai-i 

 sessions and their reinoU'iiess from th [<ongo inl capital, 

 Pavia, were almost independent. When Charlemagne de- 

 stroyed the kingdom of the Ingobards, the duchy of Be- 

 nevento maintained itself as an independent state, and its 

 dukes assumed the title of princes. They were often at 

 war with the Greeks, the Franks, and the Saracens, and 

 also with their neighbours of Naples. The principality 

 afterwards split into three, Capua and Salerno ImuiiL 

 come independent of Benevento. The Normans tool. 

 nevento and gave it up to the pope, who b-stowed on thu 

 Norman chief the investiture of Apulia and C 'i.la'.TJa. The 

 popes, however, allowed the old primvs of ISenevcnto to 

 remain as feudatories of the Roman See until !u". when 

 Landulphus, the last prince of Benevento, died. lea\ i 

 heirs. From that time Benevento has remained under the 

 direct dominion of the popes, and although it has been re- 

 peatedly seized by various kings of Naples, it lias always 

 lieen restored on making peace. In 1606, Napoleon, 1 

 conquered Naples, took Benevento also, and gave it to Tal- 

 leyrand with the title of prince, but it was restored to the. 

 pope in 1815. Benevento is governed by a cardinal ?' i.t 

 from Koine, with the title of legate. Near Beneveoto the 

 famous battle took place between Manfred and Cha: 

 Anjou in 1'Jfij, in which Manfred lost his crown :.i. 

 life. He was buried on the banks of the Calore, undur a 

 heap of stones thrown upon him by Charles s soldier., ; but 

 his remains were afterwards disinterred by order of the 

 bishop of Cosenz, and carried to the banks of the river 

 Verde on th. 1 borders of Abru//o. (See Dante, Pnr^ntorio, 

 canto iii.) Charles's soldiers after the battle pillaged Ben.-- 

 vcnto, which had offered no resistance, murdered in. s! of 

 the people, not sparing old men, children, or priests, u.,latcd 

 the women, and partly destroyed the to.vn. (Borgia, Mc- 

 morie hturicht di Benereiilo.) 



The present territory of Benevento, which belongs to the 

 pope, is limited within narrow boundaries ; it extend?, 

 seven or ei^lit miles along each of the two vallejsof the 

 Sabato and Calore, and contains fourteen \ illajies. The 

 population of the town is reckoned at 10, Out), and that of 

 the territory at about 6000 more. The surface of the ter- 

 ritory is stated at about 7000 rubbia, a Roman land mea- 

 sure equal to about four English acres. (Calindri, >', 

 Statisticn delta Stalo Pantiftcio.) The country is hill . 

 fertile in corn, IVuit, and pasture, and it abounds with 

 game. The river Sabato supplies it with fish. The town 

 is surrounded by walls, and has an old c.istle at its eastern 

 extremity; the streets are narrow and steep; the climate 

 is subject to fogs in winter and oppressive heat in summer. 



[From l)ritili Miueum. Actual ize. Cupper; weight 100 (rrmini., 



The cathedral is an old and vast building, but dispropor 

 tionatt-ly Ion : it* vault is supported by a number of (luted 

 marble columns, which are believed to belong to the Rom. in 

 period. The middle gate of the church is of Mulptuied 

 bronze, of good workmanship, and representing scriptural 

 subjects. A IMS relief of a (war adorned for -acrilice, now 

 fixed on the outnidc wall of the church, is supposed to 

 be of very remote antiquity. Adjoining the cathedral is 

 the archicpiwopal pahice. In the square before it stands 



