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Benefit of Clergy is a phrase which has entered into English literature and English thought. The thing itself exists no longer, though the last traces of it were only removed during the present reign; but it so strikingly illustrates certain peculiarities of English law-making, it has, moreover, so curious a history as to be interesting even to-day. It took its rise in times when the pretensions of the Church, high in themselves, were highly favoured by the secular power. The clergy was a distinct order, and to subject its members to the jurisdiction of the secular courts was deemed improper; so, when a clerk was seized under a charge of murder, or some other crime, the ordinary stepped forth and claimed him for the
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Court Christian,