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benefit of clergy
noun
- the rites or sanctions of a church.
- formal marriage:
living together withoutbenefit of clergy.
- the privilege claimed by church authorities to try and punish, by an ecclesiastical court, any member of the clergy accused of a serious crime. The privilege was abolished in the U.S. in 1790 and in England in 1827.
benefit of clergy
noun
- sanction by the church
marriage without benefit of clergy
- (in the Middle Ages) a privilege that placed the clergy outside the jurisdiction of secular courts and entitled them to trial in ecclesiastical courts
Word History and Origins
Origin of benefit of clergy1
Example Sentences
I was completely alone — without benefit of clergy — in the eerie and, at the same time, sublime Wells Cathedral in southwest England in 2016.
It seems that Joseph was practicing polygamy without benefit of clergy during that time.
Instead, a mixture of pragmatism and shrewdness kept Eliot and Lewes living together without benefit of clergy.
Some of her finest moments are silent, especially when Kevin and Tiffany are in a room they shouldn’t be occupying without benefit of clergy.
This case is particularly interesting, because it would seem to show that “benefit of clergy” was not claimed by nuns.
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