Everything about Benefit Of Clergy totally explained
In
English law, the
benefit of clergy was originally a provision by which
clergymen could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead 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.
Origin
Prior to the
12th century, traditional English law courts had been jointly presided over by a
bishop and a local secular magistrate. In
1166, however,
Henry II promulgated the
Assize of Clarendon, legislation that established a new system of courts that rendered decisions wholly by royal authority. The Assizes touched off a power struggle between the king and
Thomas Becket,
Archbishop of Canterbury. Becket asserted that these secular courts had no jurisdiction over clergymen, because it was the privilege of clergy not to be accused or tried for crime except before an
ecclesiastical court. After four of Henry's knights murdered Becket in
1170, public sentiment turned against the king, and he was forced to make amends with the church. As part of the
Compromise of Avranches, Henry was purged of any guilt in Becket's murder, but he agreed that the secular courts had no jurisdiction over the clergy. The only exceptions were for
high treason, highway
robbery and
arson.
The Miserere
At first, in order to plead the benefit of clergy, one had to appear before the court
tonsured and otherwise wearing ecclesiastical dress. Over time, this proof of clergy-hood was replaced by a
literacy test: a defendant demonstrated their clerical status by reading from the
Bible. This opened the door to lay, but nonetheless literate, defendants also claiming the benefit of clergy, and in
1351 under
Edward III this loophole was formalized in statute, and the benefit of clergy was officially extended to all who could read.
Unofficially, the loophole was even larger, because by tradition the Biblical passage used for the literacy test was inevitably and appropriately
Psalm 51 (Psalm 50 according to the
Vulgate and
Septuagint numbering),
Miserere mei, Deus, secundum misericordiam tuam. (
O God, have mercy upon me, according to thine heartfelt mercifulness). Thus, an illiterate person who had memorized the appropriate Psalm could also claim the benefit of clergy, and Psalm 51 became known as the
neck verse, because knowing it could save one's neck by transferring one's case from a secular court, where
hanging was a likely sentence, to an ecclesiastical court where both the methods of trial and the sentences given were more lenient.
In the ecclesiastical courts, the most usual form of trial was by
compurgation. If the defendant swore an
oath to their own innocence and found twelve
compurgators to swear likewise to their belief that the accused was innocent, they were acquitted. A person convicted by an ecclesiastical court could be
defrocked and returned to the secular authorities for punishment, but over time, the English ecclesiastical courts became increasingly lenient, and by the
15th century, most convictions in these courts led to a sentence of
penance.
Tudor-era reforms
As a result of this leniency in the ecclesiastical courts, a number of reforms were undertaken to combat the abuse of the benefit of clergy.
Henry VII decreed that non-clergymen should be allowed to plea the benefit of clergy only once: those taking the benefit of clergy, but not able to prove through documentation of their holy orders that they actually were clergymen, were
branded on the thumb, and the brand disqualified them from pleading the benefit of clergy in the future. (In
1547, the privilege of claiming benefit of clergy more than once was extended to
peers of the realm, even illiterate ones.)
In
1512,
Henry VIII further restricted the benefit of clergy by making certain offences "unclergyable" offenses; in the words of the
statutes, they were "felonies without benefit of clergy." This restriction was condemned by
Pope Leo X at the
Fifth Lateran Council in
1514, and the resulting controversy (in which both the
Lord Chief Justice and the
Archbishop of Canterbury became involved) was one of the issues that would lead to Henry VIII splitting the
Church of England from the
Roman Catholic Church in
1532. By the end of the
16th century, the list of unclergyable offences included
murder,
rape,
poisoning,
petty treason,
sacrilege,
witchcraft,
burglary,
theft from churches, and
pickpocketing.
In
1575 a statute of
Elizabeth I radically changed the effect of the benefit of clergy. Whereas before, the benefit was pleaded before a trial to have one's case transferred to an ecclesiastical court, under the new system the benefit of clergy was pleaded after conviction but before sentencing, and it didn't nullify the conviction, but rather changed the sentence for first-time offenders from probable hanging to branding and up to a year's
incarceration.
Later development
By this point, benefit of clergy had been transformed from an
ecclesiastical privilege to a mechanism by which some first-time offenders could obtain partial clemency for some crimes. Legislation in the 17th and 18th centuries further increased the number of people who could plead benefit of clergy, but decreased the benefit of doing so.
Women acquired the benefit of clergy in
1624, although it wasn't until
1691 that they were given equal privileges with men in this matter. (For example, prior to
1691, women could plead the benefit of clergy if convicted of theft of goods valued less than 10
shillings, while men could pray for their clergy for thefts up to 40 shillings.) In
1706, the reading test was abolished, and the benefit became available to all first-time offenders of lesser felonies.
Meanwhile, an increasing crime rate prompted Parliament to exclude many seemingly minor property crimes from the benefit of clergy. Eventually, housebreaking,
shoplifting goods worth more than 5 shillings, and the theft of
sheep and
cattle all became felonies without benefit of clergy that earned their perpetrators an automatic
death sentence.
When the literacy test was abolished in
1706, the lesser sentence given to those who pleaded benefit of clergy was increased to up to 6-24 months
hard labour. Under the
1718 Transportation Act, those who pleaded benefit of clergy could be sentenced to seven years'
banishment to
North America. The
American Revolution in
1776 disrupted the ability to apply this punishment, and with the abolition of branding in
1779, benefit of clergy was no longer an option in most cases. Although transportation shifted to
Australia, this came to be done using straightforward sentences of transportation for a number of years or life. Benefit of clergy was formally abolished by Parliament in
1827. It had already been taken away from federal courts by an
Act of Congress in
1790 in the
United States, but it survived well into the mid-1800s in some state courts (for example, South Carolina granted a defendant benefit of clergy in 1855) and may even remain technically available in some states today. While many states have abolished clergy by statute or judicial decision, in some it has simply fallen into disuse without formal abolition.
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