benefit of clergy

noun

sanction by a religious rite

-

they are living together without benefit of clergy

• Hypernyms: ↑sanction

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Etymology: translation of Medieval Latin beneficium clericale

1. : the privilege claimed by the medieval church of demanding a trial and punishment by an ecclesiastical court for a member of the clergy accused of crime before a temporal court

2. : the ministration or sanction of the church — used chiefly of the marriage rite

a man and a girl living together without benefit of clergy — Wolcott Gibbs

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1. the rites or sanctions of a church.

2. formal marriage: living together without benefit of clergy.

3. the privilege claimed by church authorities to try and punish, by an ecclesiastical court, any member of the clergy accused of a serious crime. The privilege was abolished in the U.S. in 1790 and in England in 1827.

[1480-90]

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benefit of clergy noun

Originally an exemption of clergymen, in certain cases, from criminal process before a secular judge, but later covering the first offence of all who could read

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Main Entry: ↑benefit

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benefit of clergy see under ↑benefit

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Main Entry: ↑clergy

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benefit of clergy,

1. (formerly) the privilege of being tried in church courts instead of secular courts.

2. the services and rites or approval of the church.

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1) historical exemption of the English clergy and nuns from the jurisdiction of the ordinary civil courts, granted in the Middle Ages but abolished in 1827

2) ecclesiastical sanction or approval

they lived together without benefit of clergy