Forms: 3–6 clergye, 3–7 clergie, 4 clergi, cleargye, (cleregie, -gye), 4–5 clerge, 4–7 clargy, -gie, (5 clerigie), 6 clargye, 6–7 cleargie, -gy, 4– clergy. [a. OF. clergie (12th c. in Littré), clargie, fem., literally ‘clerkship,’ sb. of state f. clerc:—clēric-us cleric, CLERK. For branch I, the proper word was L. clēricāt-us, OF. clergié, F. clergé, masc.; but in OF. clergie was also used in same sense; and if any of the ME. forms represent clergié, they cannot be distinguished from those that represent clergie.
The regular phonetic repr. of Romanic cler(i)c-īa, in OF. would have been, according to dialect, clercie (clerzie, once in Godef.), clerchie: cf. Pr. clercia, Sp. clerecia. OF. clergie was an assimilation of this to clergié, a word of earlier formation in which g was regular (clēricāt-, clerigāt-, clergāt-, clergiet, clergié). The influence of the latter similarly appears in clergess, clergise, clergion. The occasional ME. clerge, pl. clergis (sense 2. d) may possibly represent clericus: cf. Pr. clerc, clerge.]
I. The clerical estate or order = mod.F. clergé.
† 1. The estate or office of a cleric or clerk (in ecclesiastical orders); the clerical office. Obs.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 43. It behowuiþ vs clerks to not mishews þe sygnes of our cleregye.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 81. Clergie or office of clerkes, clericatus.
1529. More, Heresyes, III. Wks. 226/2. As he that is in the clergye noughte, is farre the worse because he is therein, so he that therein is good, is for his clergy very farre the better.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. xix. (1634), 726. The Popish rasure ministred unto Clerks at the first receit of their Cleargie.
2. concr. The clerical order; the body of men set apart by ordination for religious service in the Christian church; opposed to laity.
Sometimes, in popular speech, used of the ordinary clergy as distinguished from bishops, etc., as in ‘the bishop met the clergy of his diocese.’ Originally a term of the Catholic church, but also commonly used in those Protestant churches which have an ordained ministry. (As with similar terms, its application is often made a matter of principle.)
a. construed as collective plural.
c. 1275. O. E. Misc., 89. Symonye, Þat muchel del haueþ amerd of þere clergie.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 563. Of þe clergie at Londone … A conseil he made.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 28. Þe baronage & þe clergie were somond to Kyngeston.
c. 1450. Merlin, vi. 97. On yoole even was assembled alle the clergie of the reame.
1529. More, Heresyes, I. Wks. 108/2. To put euery man to silence that woulde … speake of the fautes of the clargye.
1604. James I., Counterbl., To Rdr. (Arb.), 96. Our Cleargie are become negligent.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. I. 14. The King of Spain … would be … compell’d by his Clergy … to make new Demands.
1762. (title) Observations on the Present State of Widows and Orphans of the Protestant Clergy of all denominations in Great Britain and Ireland.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 376. The people … are divisible into two kinds; the clergy and laity: the clergy, comprehending all persons in holy orders, and in ecclesiastical offices.
1765–8. Maclaine, trans. Mosheim’s Eccl. Hist., xvii. (1844), II. 221. The defects and vices of the Lutheran clergy.
1838. Gladstone, State in Rel. Ch. (1839), 259. The Presbyterian clergy of the Scotch church.
1845. Sarah Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., I. 303. With the higher clergy of Germany.
b. as collective singular.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 373. Þe clergye is ybonden by astate & office.
1483. Cath. Angl., 66/2. A clerge, clerus, clerimonia.
1653. Milton, Hirelings, Wks. (1851), 387. They affected to be call’d a Clergy.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), III. 480. An ambitious Clergy impoverishes it’s People.
a. 1863. Whately, in Sat. Rev. (1864), 9 July, 58. The usefulness of a married clergy.
c. rarely, as numeral plural = clergymen.
1850. J. H. Newman, Diffic. Anglic., 184. Some hundred Clergy.
† d. In the last sense, clergies was formerly used.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 27244. In scrift … enentes clergis seculers.
c. 1340. Hampole, Psalter lxvii. 14 [lxviii. 13]. Si dormiatis inter medios cleros … if ȝe slepe amange þe myddis clergis.
1481. Caxton, Myrr., I. v. 22. In this manere were the clergies first founden.
1672. Dodwell, in Baxter, Answ. Dodwell (1682), 73. The united endeavours of above a Thousand Clergies.
e. Used of all members of religious orders.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 215. I found the clergy in general, persons of moderate minds and decorous manners; I include the seculars, and regulars of both sexes.
† 3. transf. The priestly order in the Jewish and other non-Christian religions. Obs.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1509. Oure bischop [of Jerusalem] … iogis all þe iewis · & generall callis … Þan consals him þe clergy.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 273. Tlamacazque … one of the principallest of the Diuels Cleargie there.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 14 (D.). The Druidæ (for so they call their diviners, wisemen, and estate of clergie).
1727. De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. iii. (1840), 73. Upon this comes Jannes and Jambres … it seems the king’s Court was not then without a sufficient number of Clergy.
4. As a rendering of Gr. κλήρος, and of κλήρων in 1 Pet. v. 3; see quots.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Pet. v. 3. Nether as hauynge lordshipe in the clergie [1582 Rhem., neither as ouerruling the Clergie; Tindale, Cranmer, the parisshes; Coverdale, the parishens; Genev., 1611, Gods heritage].
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. iii. (1851), 164. The title of Clergy S. Peter gave to all Gods people, till Pope Higinus and the succeeding Prelates took it from them.
1643. Burroughes, Exp. Hosea, i. (1652), 159. You shall find in Scripture the people are called Clergy in distinction from the Ministers, and never the Ministers … from the people.
1736. Chandler, Hist. Persec., 459. The words Clergy and Church are never once used in Scripture to denote the Bishops or other Officers, but the Christian people.
II. In sense of mod.F. clergie.
† 5. ‘Clerkly skill’; learning, scholarship, science. Obs. exc. in proverb (quot. 1690–1822).
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 538. I-cud of alle clergies.
c. 1320. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 62. I sal teche him than Of clergy more than ani man.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 10. That clergy That clerkes kalles astronomi.
c. 1440. York Myst., xx. 54. Be clargy clere if we couthe knawe.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 376. The grete and excellent clergy that is in you.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 52. She chopth logyke, to put me to my clargy.
c. 1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Clerk-ship, An Ounce of Mother-Wit is worth a Pound of Clergy, or Book-learning.
1822. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1859), II. 3/1. The old saying, that an ounce of mother wit is worth a pound of clergy.
6. Old Law. Benefit of (his) clergy, also simply (his) clergy: orig. the privilege of exemption from trial by a secular court, allowed to or claimed by clergymen arraigned for felony; in later times the privilege of exemption from the sentence, which, in the case of certain offences, might be pleaded on his first conviction by every one who could read. Abolished, after various earlier modifications, in 1827. Cf. NECK-VERSE.
The ability to read, being originally merely the test of the ‘clergy,’ or clerical position, of the accused, came at length to be in itself the ground of the privilege, so that the phrase became = ‘benefit of scholarship’ (sense 5, instead of 1).
c. 1300. Beket, 371. A preost ther was … That of manslaȝt was bicliped … Me acusede him faste of the dethe: ac he … huld him faste to holi churche … Iloked he was to purgi him thurf clergie if he miȝte.
1511. Act 3 Hen. VIII., c. 5. That … he … so offending (not being within orders of holy church) enioie not the benefite of his clergie.
1601. Munday, Death Huntington, I. iii. in Hazl., Dodsley, VIII. 244. Stand to your clergy, uncle; save your life.
1623. Act 21 Jas., I. c. 6. Pream., By the Laws of this Realm the Benefit of Clergy is not allowed to Women convicted of Felony.
a. 1626. Bacon, Max. & Uses Com. Law, 39. Praying his clergy, and thereupon reading as a clerke.
1631. Brathwait, Whimzies, Charac. Jayler, 49. If any … be admitted to his clergy, and by helpe of a compassionate prompter, hacke out his necke-verse.
1670. Blount, Law Dict., s.v., By the Statute of 18 Eliz. cap. 7 Clerks are no more delivered to their Ordinaries to be purged, but now every Man, to whom this benefit is granted, though not in Orders, is put to read at the Bar, after he is found guilty, and convicted of such Felony, and so burnt in the hand, and set free for the first time, if the Ordinaries Commissioner or Deputy standing by do say—Legit ut Clericus.
1670. Marvell, Corr., clxxii. Wks. 1872–5, II. 362. Such a clause … makes it felony, without clergy.
1697. Lond. Gaz., No. 3304/3. Craving the Benefit of his Clergy … he was Burnt in the Hand.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N. (1869), II. V. i. 351. [The] members [of the universities], whether masters or students, had all of them what was then called the benefit of clergy, that is were exempted from the civil jurisdiction … and were amenable only to the ecclesiastical tribunals.
1864. Knight, Fifty Years Wkg. Life, I. 204. Then [1818] the Crier of the Court called out to the Convict, ‘kneel down and pray your Clergy.’
b. Clergy of belly: ‘respite claimed by a pregnant woman’ (Davies).
1678. Butler, Hud., III. i. 884. Who therefore in a streight, may freely Demand the Clergy of her Belly.
III. 7. attrib. or as adj. Belonging to the clergy, clerical.
a. 1635. Corbett, Iter Bor., 8. A noble cleargy host, Kitt Middleton.
1670. Walton, Life Hooker, I. 40. She [Q. Elizabeth] eased herself, by laying the burden of all her clergy-cares upon his [Abp. Whitgift’s] shoulders.
8. attrib. and Comb., as clergy-like adj., -mender, -priest, profession, -relation, -right, -tailor; † clergy-feme, a clergyman’s wife or woman; clergy-house, the residence of a clergyman; also, a house of residence for all the clergy having sole or subordinate charge of a living.
1589. Warner, Alb. Eng., VI. xxxi. (1612), 152. How fine and faire a life our *Clergie-Femes inioy.
1865. G. E. Street, Town Churches, in Englishm. Mag., Feb., 125. The Church … would … be rendered even more striking by the group of subordinate buildings—*clergy-house, house for the choir-boys and masters, schools, &c.
1874. Micklethwaite, Mod. Par. Churches, 25. When the clergy-house is close to the church.
1632. Star Chamb. Cases (1886), 173. In as *clergie-like and church-like manner as maie be.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, Pref. to Rdr. 3. An infinite number of Church and *Clergy-Menders.
c. 1589. Theses Martinianæ, title-p., With their whole band of *Clergie-priests.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. xvii. 329 (D.). Nor suits it with my *Clergy-profession to proceed any further in this warlike description.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. iii. (1851), 168. That Priestly unction and *Clergy-right whereto Christ hath entitl’d him.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. xviii. (1652), 488 (D.). Observe those *Clergy sticklers on the Civil Stage.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, V. (1737), 215. *Clergy-Taylors, Wafer-makers.
Hence † Clergy’d ppl. a., provided with clergy.
1696. Growth of Deism in Eng., 31. Every Party of Christians embodied, organized, clergy’d and modelled into a National Church.
