What is "benefit of clergy"

Benefit \Ben"e*fit\, n. [OE. benefet, benfeet, bienfet, F. bienfait, fr. L. benefactum; bene well (adv. of bonus good) + factum, p. p. of facere to do. See Bounty, and Fact.]

1. An act of kindness; a favor conferred.

   Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
   --Ps. ciii.

2. 2. Whatever promotes prosperity and personal happiness, or adds value to property; advantage; profit.

   Men have no right to what is not for their benefit.
   --Burke.

3. A theatrical performance, a concert, or the like, the proceeds of which do not go to the lessee of the theater or to the company, but to some individual actor, or to some charitable use.

4. Beneficence; liberality. [Obs.]
   --Webster (1623).

5. pl. Natural advantages; endowments; accomplishments. [R.] ``The benefits of your own country.''
   --Shak.

   Benefit of clergy. (Law) See under Clergy.

   Syn: Profit; service; use; avail. See Advantage.

Clergy \Cler"gy\, n. [OE. clergie, clergi, clerge, OF. clergie, F. clergie (fr. clerc clerc, fr. L. clericus priest) confused with OF. clergi['e], F. clerg['e], fr. LL. clericatus office of priest, monastic life, fr. L. clericus priest, LL. scholar, clerc. Both the Old French words meant clergy, in sense 1, the former having also sense 2. See Clerk.]

1. The body of men set apart, by due ordination, to the service of God, in the Christian church, in distinction from the laity; in England, usually restricted to the ministers of the Established Church.
   --Hooker.

2. Learning; also, a learned profession. [Obs.]

   Sophictry . . . rhetoric, and other cleargy.
   --Guy of Warwick.

   Put their second sons to learn some clergy.
   --State Papers (1515).

3. The privilege or benefit of clergy.

   If convicted of a clergyable felony, he is entitled equally to his clergy after as before conviction.
   --Blackstone.

   Benefit of clergy (Eng., Law), the exemption of the persons of clergymen from criminal process before a secular judge -- a privilege which was extended to all who could read, such persons being, in the eye of the law, clerici, or clerks. This privilege was abridged and modified by various statutes, and finally abolished in the reign of George IV. (1827).

   Regular clergy, Secular clergy See Regular, n., and Secular, a.

n. sanction by a religious rite; "they are living together without benefit of clergy"

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. Various reforms limited the scope of this legal arrangement to prevent its abuse. Eventually the benefit of clergy evolved into a legal fiction in which first-time offenders could receive lesser sentences for some crimes (the so-called "clergyable" ones). The legal mechanism was abolished in 1823 with the passage of the Judgement of Death Act which gave judges the discretion to pass lesser sentences on the first-time offenders.