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15 Ky. L.J. 85 (1926-1927)
Benefit of Clergy--A Legal Anomaly

handle is hein.journals/kentlj15 and id is 87 raw text is: KENTUCKY LAW JOURNAL Volume XV. JANUARY, 1927. Number 2. BENE FIT OF CLERGY-A LEGAL ANOMALY. I. DEVOP NT oF B NE B IT OF CLERGY. Among the most prized privileges of the Medieval Church was benefit of clergy. This may be defined as an immunity by which clergymen accused of felony, could be tried only in their own courts. Not only did the ecclesiastical courts have ex- clusive jurisdiction in cases of offenses by clerks against criminal law, but also in all cases of offences by laymen against clerks. By this privilege the clergy acquired a peculiar sanctity which set them apart from the laity. The personal inviolability sur- rounding them gave them a great advantage in contests with civil authority and since the Church was held responsible only to divine law, it became almost independent of the civil power and in all differences with temporal rulers this privilege was of great value. This medieval custom was not established without a long and bitter struggle. It was not considered unreasonable that disputes between ecclesiastics should be settled by their bishops, and this was the established rule of the church from an early period. But the claim that the felonious clerk should not be tried in a temporal court and that all disputes between laymen and ecclesiastics should be settled in church courts was not easily granted.' Benefit of clergy had its origin in the high regard in which the Church and its officials were held by secular rulers. As early as 355 A. D., the Roman Emperor Constantius decreed that bishops could be tried only by bishops2 and later Justinian al- lowed the clergy the right to have episcopal judges, though he carefully reserved the power of disregarding the exemption: nisi princeps jubeat.' 3 The early British Church presents one 'Medley English Constitutional History (1907) 570-571. Lea Studies in Church History (1883) 177. 2Lea, supra, 178-179; Ayer Source Book of Ancient Church His- tory (1913) 283; See Codex Theodosianus (319 A. D.) XVI, 2, 2. Lea, supra, 182.

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