BENEDICT 



684 



BENEFIT OF CLERGY 



Italy, proved invaluable experience for the 

 administration of the' supreme office which he 

 was later called upon to fill. A man of aristo- 

 cratic birth and training, a noted scholar, fa- 

 mous for his fearlessness and moral courage, 

 Pope Benedict is certain to occupy a prominent 

 place in the history of his time. 



HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XV 



Other Popes of the Name. Of the other 

 Popes of the name, from Benedict I, Pope from 

 574 to 578, to Benedict XIV, Pope from 1740 

 to 1758, several are worthy of mention. 



Benedict VIII, who was raised to the Papal 

 chair in 1012 and ruled until 1024, had to con- 

 tend for his right to the office with the anti- 

 pope Gregory VI, but was confirmed in his 

 possession of it by the Emperor Henry II. His 

 later reign was disturbed by contests with the 

 Saracens, but Henry remained his friend and 

 helped him to gain possession of the island of 

 Sardinia. One of his interdicts was directed 

 against marriage of the clergy. 



Benedict IX, nephew of the preceding, was 

 first chosen Pope in 1033, and lived until 1056. 

 Within that time, however, he was never Pope 

 for more than eight months at a time, for he 

 was constantly being deposed by one power 

 or another. Four times he was reinstated, but 

 in 1048 was permanently superseded and retired 

 to a convent, where he died. 



Benedict XIV (1675-1758) is worthy to rank 

 with the very ablest holders of the Papal 

 throne. After having served as bishop of 

 Ancona, archbishop of Bologna and cardinal, 



he became Pope on the death of Clement XII 

 in 1740. He distinguished himself especially 

 by the interest he took in education and 

 archaeological matters, establishing several 

 chairs in the University of Rome, founding 

 academies and directing the excavation of vari- 

 ous Roman antiquities. Himself a man of 

 uprightness and sincerity, he labored for reform 

 among the clergy. His chief work is On the 

 Beatification and Canonization oj Saints, con- 

 sidered an authority on the subjeqt. G.W.M. 



BENEDICTINES, benedik' tinz, a religious 

 Order of men, so named because of their adher- 

 ence to the rule of life dictated by Saint Bene- 

 dict. His idea was that each monastery should 

 be a separate organization and should, for the 

 monk, take the place of the family. The first 

 monastery of the Order was established by 

 Benedict at Monte Cassino, in the Appenines, 

 in the year 529. The Order spread rapidly, 

 and in the next century the Bened . es were 

 foremost in implanting Christianity ajjd civili- 

 zation in the West. During the Dark Ages 

 these monasteries were the only places.: where 

 the followers of the Church could find meeting- 

 places of retreat from the social classes, and 

 the Order at this time was very influential in 

 preserving some of the traditions which the 

 bishops had succeeded in keeping alive. 



The Benedictines have always been noted for 

 their piety and for their encouragement of 

 learning. Within their monasteries no branch 

 of art or industry known at that time was neg- 

 lected, and many of the books written before 

 the invention of printing were made there. 



BENEFIT ASSOCIATIONS. See FRATERNAL 

 SOCIETIES. 



BENEFIT OF CLERGY, the privilege en- 

 joyed by the clergy of the medieval Church by 

 which they were exempted from the juris- 

 diction of the ordinary courts and were respon- 

 sible only to their bishops or Church courts. 

 Originally, this exemption applied only to the 

 clergy, but it was later extended to all clerks; 

 and since everyone who could read and write 

 even a little was considered a clerk, the privi- 

 lege was much abused. A layman could receive 

 the benefit of clergy only once, however, and 

 before obtaining his liberty was branded on the 

 thumb, a punishment which later was com- 

 muted to whipping, imprisonment or banish- 

 ment. The benefit of clergy was abolished in 

 1827. One of Kipling's finest stories is entitled 

 Without Benefit of Clergy, but he uses the 

 phrase in an entirely different sense from the 

 form above. 



