Benefit of clergy Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun sanction by a religious rite
    • they are living together without benefit of clergy

WordNet


Definitions
  1. (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).
Definitions
  1. . (Law) See under Clergy.

Webster 1913