clergy : Idioms & Phrases

Index

Benefit of clergy

  • noun sanction by a religious rite
    • they are living together without benefit of clergy
WordNet
  • (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).
Webster 1913

Regular clergy, Secular clergy

  • See Regular, n., and Secular, a.
Webster 1913