Editing Benefit of clergy (section)

== Origin ==
When the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, its emperors issued legal privileges to clerics, particularly bishops, granting them immunity from civic prosecution. In the early Middle Ages, canon law tended to extend the degree of this privilege, even including criminal matters.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=West |first=C. |date=2021-01-06 |title=Pope Leo of Bourges, clerical immunity and the early medieval secular |url=https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/169821/ |journal=Early Medieval Europe |language=en |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=86–108 |doi=10.1111/emed.12450 |s2cid=234023609 |issn=0963-9462|hdl=20.500.11820/4d844531-07b8-4d4e-a951-58ff9eb06dc3 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> In England, this tradition was only partially accepted.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Marafioti |first=Nicole |date=2019-07-01 |title=Secular and Ecclesiastical Justice in Late Anglo-Saxon England |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/703556 |journal=Speculum |volume=94 |issue=3 |pages=774–805 |doi=10.1086/703556 |s2cid=197852973 |issn=0038-7134}}</ref> Before the 12th century, traditional English law courts had been jointly presided over by a [[bishop]] and a local secular [[magistrate]]. 

In 1164, however, [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] promulgated the [[Constitutions of Clarendon]], which established a new system of courts that rendered decisions wholly by royal authority. The [[Assizes]] touched off a power struggle between the king and [[Thomas Becket]], [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]. Becket asserted that these secular courts had no jurisdiction over clergy members because it was the privilege of clergy not to be accused or tried for crime except before an ecclesiastical court. After four of Henry's [[knight]]s murdered Becket in 1170, public sentiment turned against the king, forcing him to make amends with the church. As part of the [[Compromise of Avranches]], Henry was purged of any guilt in Becket's murder. Still, he agreed that the secular courts, with few exceptions ([[high treason]] being one of them, and [[Royal_forest#Forest_law|forest law]] another), had no jurisdiction over the clergy.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Duggan|first=Anne J.|date=2017|title=Clerical Exemption in Canon Law from Gratian to the Decretals|url=http://hw.oeaw.ac.at/?arp=0x00372f1f|journal=Medieval Worlds|language=en|volume=medieval worlds|issue = 6|pages=78–100, at p. 89|doi=10.1553/medievalworlds_no6_2017s78|issn=2412-3196|doi-access=free}}</ref>