Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Clergy
Cler′gy
,Noun.
[OE.
clergie
, clergi
, clerge
, OF. clergie
, F. clergie
(fr. clerc
clerc, fr. L. clericus
priest) confused with OF. clergié
, F. clergé
, fr. LL. clericatus
office of priest, monastic life, fr. L. clericus
priest, LL. scholar, clerc. Both the Old French words meant clergy, in sense 1, the former having also sense 2. See Clerk
.] 1.
The body of men set apart, by due ordination, to the service of God, in the Christian church, in distinction from the laity; in England, usually restricted to the ministers of the Established Church.
Hooker.
2.
Learning; also, a learned profession.
[Obs.]
Sophictry . . . rhetoric, and other
cleargy
. Guy of Warwick.
Put their second sons to learn some
clergy
. State Papers (1515).
3.
The privilege or benefit of clergy.
If convicted of a clergyable felony, he is entitled equally to his
clergy
after as before conviction. Blackstone.
Benefit of clergy
(Eng., Law)
, the exemption of the persons of clergymen from criminal process before a secular judge – a privilege which was extended to all who could read, such persons being, in the eye of the law, clerici, or clerks. This privilege was abridged and modified by various statutes, and finally abolished in the reign of George IV. (1827).
– Regular clergy
,
Secular clergy
Webster 1828 Edition
Clergy
CLERGY
, n.1.
The body of men set apart, and consecrated, by due ordination, to the service of God, in the christian church; the body of ecclesiastics, in distinction from the laity.2.
The privilege or benefit of clergy.If convicted of a clergyable felony, he is entitled equally to his clergy after as before conviction.
Benefit of clergy, in English law, originally the exemption of the persons of clergymen from criminal process before a secular judge; or a privilege by which a clerk or person in orders claimed to be delivered to his ordinary to purge himself of felony. But this privilege has been abridged and modified by various statutes. In the United States, no benefit of clergy exists.