In English law, the benefit of clergy (Law Latin Privilegium clericale) was originally a provision by which clergymen could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead in an ecclesiastical court under canon law. Eventually, the course of history transformed it into a mechanism by which first-time offenders could receive a more lenient sentence for some lesser crimes (the so-called "clergyable" ones).
Read more about Benefit Of Clergy: Origin, The Miserere, Tudor-era Reforms, Later Development
Famous quotes containing the words benefit of, benefit and/or clergy:
“All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It’s a bum’s life.... The principal benefit acting has afforded me is the money to pay for my psychoanalysis.”
—Marlon Brando (b. 1924)
“...I do deeply deplore, of the sake of the cause, the prevalent notion, that the clergy must be had, either by persuasion or by bribery. They will not need persuasion or bribery, if their hearts are with us; if they are not, we are better without them. It is idle to suppose that the kingdom of heaven cannot come on earth, without their cooperation.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)