BENEFIT OF CLERGY Definition & Meaning

benefit of clergy

the rites or sanctions of a church.
formal marriage:
living together withoutbenefit of clergy.
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.

benefit of clergy

sanction by the church
marriage without benefit of clergy
(in the Middle Ages) a privilege that placed the clergy outside the jurisdiction of secular courts and entitled them to trial in ecclesiastical courts

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First recorded in 1480–90

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Examples have not been reviewed.

I was completely alone — without benefit of clergy — in the eerie and, at the same time, sublime Wells Cathedral in southwest England in 2016.

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It seems that Joseph was practicing polygamy without benefit of clergy during that time.

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Instead, a mixture of pragmatism and shrewdness kept Eliot and Lewes living together without benefit of clergy.

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Some of her finest moments are silent, especially when Kevin and Tiffany are in a room they shouldn’t be occupying without benefit of clergy.

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This case is particularly interesting, because it would seem to show that “benefit of clergy” was not claimed by nuns.

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