abstract:In English law, the benefit of clergy (Law Latin Privilegium clericale) was originally a provision by which clergymen could claim that they were outside the jurisdiction of the secular courts and be tried instead in an ecclesiastical court 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 (the so-called "clergyable" ones).
But in every play from "Love's Labour's lost" to "HenryV, " the elocutionist meddlessimplyas a murderer, andought to be dealt with as such withoutbenefit ofclergy.