Clergy - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: clergyClergy
Clergy [fr. clerge, Fr.; clerus, Lat.], the assembly or body of clerks or ecclesiastics set apart from the rest of the people or laity to superintend the public worship of God and the other ceremonies of religion, and to administer spiritual counsel and instruction.--The clergy were before the Reformation divided into (1) regular, who lived under certain rules, being of some religious order, and were called men of religion, or the religious, such as abbots, priors, monks, etc.; and (2) secular, who did not live under any certain rules of the religious orders, as bishops, deans, parsons, etc. Now the term comprehends all persons in holy orders and in ecclesiastical offices, viz., archbishops, bishops, deans and chapters, archdeacons, rural deans, parsons (either rectors or vicars) and curates, to which may be added parish clerks. The clergy are exempt from serving on juries; restrained from farming more than 80 acres, except with the sanction of the bishop, and cannot carryon any trade....
Benefit of clergy
Benefit of clergy [privilegium clericale, Lat.], an arrest of judgment in criminal cases. The origin of it was this: Princes and states, anciently converted to Christianity, granted to the clergy very bountiful privileges and exemptions, and particularly an immunity of their persons in criminal proceedings before secular judges. The clergy, afterwards increasing in wealth, number, and power, claimed this benefit as an indefeasible right, which had been merely a matter of royal favour, founding their principal argument upon this text of Scripture: 'Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.' They obtained great enlargements of this privilege, extending it not only to persons in holy orders, but also to all who had any kind of subordinate ministration in the church, and even to laymen if they could read, applying it to civil as well as criminal causes. These exemptions at length grew so burthensome and scandalous, that the legislature from time to time interfered, by making par...
Secular clergy
Secular clergy, parochial clergy who performed their ministry in seculo, and were contradistingui-shed from the regular clergy, who lived in monasteries, by rules (regul').Clergy who have no particular religious affiliation or do not belong to a particular religious denomina-tion, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1356....
Colonial clergy
Colonial clergy. As to the position of clergy ordained in the colonies, when they come to England, see the 'Colonial Clergy Act, 1874,' 37 & 38 Vict. c. 77....
Clergy, benefit of
Clergy, benefit of. See BENEFIT OF CLERGY....
Proctors of the Clergy
Proctors of the Clergy, they who are chosen and appointed to appear for cathedral or other collegiate churches, as also for the common clergy of every diocese, to sit in the convocation-house in the time of Parliament....
Orders of the Clergy
Orders of the Clergy. See HOLY ORDERS...
Regular clergy
Regular clergy, the monks, who lived secundum regulas of their respective houses or societies, 2 Steph. Com....
Bounty of Queen Anne
Bounty of Queen Anne, given by royal charter, which was confirmed by Queen Anne (2 Anne, c. 11), whereby all the revenue of first-fruits and tenths (see those titles) which belonged to the English Crown was transferred by Queen Anne to trustees for ever, called 'Governors,' to form a perpetual fund for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor clergy. After the appropriation of the revenue arising from the payment of first-fruits and tenths to the augmentation of small livings, it was considered a proper extension of this principle to exempt the smaller livings from the incumbrance of those demands; and, for that end, the bishops of each diocese were directed to inquire and certify into the Exchequer what livings did not exceed 50l. a year, according to the improved value at that time; and it was further provided that such livings should be discharged from those dues in future. It has been still further regulated by subsequent statutes, especially by the Queen Anne's Bounty Act, ...
Pension
Pension, an annual allowance made to any one, usually in consideration of past services.By the (English) Succession to the Crown Act, 1707, (6 Anne, c. 7) (c. 41 in the Revised Statutes), and 1 Geo. 1, st. 2, c. 56, no person having a pension under the Crown during pleasure, or for any term of years, is capable of being elected or sitting in the House of Commons.Old Age Pension.--The (English) Old Age Pensions Act, 1908, which was not on a contributory basis, gave to every person the right to a pension who fulfilled certain conditions. The Act, with the amending (English) Old Age Pensions Acts, 1911, 1919 and 1924, has been repealed by the (English) Consolidating Old Age Pensions Act, 1936 (26 Geo. 5 and 1 Edw. 8, c. 31). These conditions are contained in s. 2 of the Act of 1936, as follows:-2. The statutory conditions for the receipt of an old age pension by any person are--(1)The person must have attained the age of seventy, or in the case of a blind person, the age of fifty.(2)The p...
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