benefit of clergy

noun

A legal provision by which clergymen (and, later, anybody who could read) could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead in an ecclesiastical court under canon law.

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Meanings

nounbenefit of clergy (uncountable)
  1. UKhistoricaluncountablelawA legal provision by which clergymen (and, later, anybody who could read) could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead in an ecclesiastical court under canon law.

    It will be seen that what the defenders of Dali are claiming is a kind of benefit of clergy. That artist is to be exempt from the moral laws that are binding on ordinary people.

    1944, George Orwell, Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali
Cite this entry
APA

benefit of clergy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/benefit%20of%20clergy

MLA

“benefit of clergy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/benefit%20of%20clergy. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “benefit of clergy,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/benefit%20of%20clergy.

Source: benefit of clergy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.