CLERGY
388
CLERMONT
they ought to oonsicter, namely, the intellectual and moral qnalificationB of the person to be elected. There are other points by which their choice is determined. One, for instance, says, ** It is necessary to elect a per- son who is of a good family.** Another would choose a wealthy person, because he would not require to be supported out of the revenues of the Church. A third votes for a person who has come over firom some oppo- site party. A fourth uses his influence in favor of a relative or friend. While another lends his influence to one who has won upon him by fifdr speeches and plausible pretensions.* In order to set aside these abuses, some bishops claimed an exclusive right of appointing to spiritual offices. In this way they gave offence to the people. In the Latin and African churches an attemj^ was made to secure greater sim- plicity hi elections by introducing vitUers, This did not, however, long continue. Another plan was to vest the election in members of the lay aristocracy. But the determining who these should be was left to caprice or accident; and the result was that the right of election was taken out of the hands of the people, and vested partly in the hands of the ruling powers and partly with the clergy, who exercised theb right either by the bishops, their suffragans and vicars, or by collegiate meetings, and this very often without pa3ring any regard to the Church or diocese imme- diately concerned. Sometimes the extraordinary mode of a bishop's designating his successor was adopted ; or some one unconnected with the diocese, to whom a doubtful case had been referred for decision, was al- lowed to nominate. But in these cases the consent of the people was presupposed. Patronage has prevailed since the fifth century ; but the complete development of this system was a work of the eighth and ninth centuries** (see Patronage), — Coleman, ChrittianAn- tfquUieSf ch. iii ; Farrar, Eccie$, Dictiofiary, s. v. Elec- tion ; Bingham, Orig. Eccks, bk. iv, chap, ii ; Henry, Ch, Antiq, bk. ii, ch. i; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirckm-Lex, i, 630 ; Herzog, Real-Enofhlop, s. v. Ckistliche. See Ecclesiastical Polity.
CLERGY, BENEFIT OF, an ancient privilege whereby the persons of clergymen were exempted firt>m criminal process before the secular judges in par- ticular cases, and consecrated places were exempted fh)m criminal arrests. See Sanctuaby. " This priv- ilege was originally confined to those who had the hcAitwn et toruuram dericaUm, but in time every one was accounted a clerk who could read ; so that after the dissemination of learning by the invention of printing, it was found that as many laymen as divines were admitted to this privilege, and therefore the stat. 4 Henry VII, ch. xiii, distinguishes between lay schol- ars and clerks in holy orders, and directs that the for- mer should not claim this privilege more than once, and, in order to their being afterwards known, they should be marked with a letter, according to their offence, on the brawn of the left thumb. After this burning, the laity, and before it the real clergy, were discharged from the sentence of the law in the king's court, and delivered over to the ordinary for canon- ical purgation. This purgation, having given rise to various abuses and prostitution of oaths, was abolished at the Reformation ; and accordingly by the stat. 18 Elizabeth, ch. vii, it was enacted that every person having benefit of clergy should not be delivered over to the ordinary, but after burning in the hand should be delivered out of prison, unless the judge thought it expe<^nt to detain him there for a limited period. It will be collected from the above statement that the par- ties entitled to this privilege are clerks in holy orders, without branding, or any of the punishments subse- quently introduced in its place ; lords of Parliament, peers, and peeresses for the first offence ; commoners not in orders, whether male or female, for clergyable felonies, upon being burnt in the hand, whipped, fined, imprisoned, or transported. It is a privilege peculiar
to the clergy that sentence of death cannot be pasMd upon them for any number of der^^ble offiBnees cam- mitted by them (Blackstone, Comm. iv, 874).**— Eadk EotU». Did, s. V.
ClexYol Rboulabbs et Sbcitlabbs. See Caxos and Reoulabs.
Clerioos. See Clbbc, Lb.
Clerk (Acts xix, 36). See Town-clbbk.
CLERK, originally and properly the name for one of the clergy (q. v.), and still ^e common appeDatHc by which clergymen of the Church of England distm- guish themselves in signing any legal inatrnmeiit. It came afterwards, by an obvious transition, to signify t 'Meamed man.** Its most usual application in Englairf is to that officer, now a layman, but once, in all probatal- ity, an ordained functionary, who leads the rasponses of the congregatk>n. Properly speaking, in the Qmrch of England, the clerk is not an original functionary Cff the congregation in the eye of the Church, wiuch, ia her rubrics, speaks mostly, if not always, of ** clerks'* (ordained persons) ; and it is certain tiiat several da- ties are by custom yielded to the cleric which properiy belong to the clerg3rinan, such as the giving out of the Psalms to be sung, and the publication of notices. (See Rubric after Nicene Creed.) The appointment of par- ish clerks properly belongs to the incumbent. IImt should be licensed by the ordinary, and take an oath to obey the minister, with whom properly reets the power of removing the clerk from his office, Jthoogfa if he be displaced without sufficient cause a '^maikds- mus'* may restore him. By the Church Tempan£- ties* Act for Ireland, the parish clerk is removable lor any misconduct, by the minister with the cooaeot of the bishop. — Hook, Church Dictionary^ s. v.