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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
See
Regular
,
Noun.
, and
Secular
,
Adj.

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.

Definition 2024


clergy

clergy

English

Noun

clergy (plural clergies)

  1. Body of persons, such as ministers, sheiks, priests and rabbis, who are trained and ordained for religious service.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, [], down the nave to the western door. [] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.
    Today we brought together clergy from the Wiccan, Christian, New Age and Islamic traditions for an interfaith dialogue.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

  • clergy” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).