I’d forgotten that I’ve blogged about "benefit of clergy" before. I just read a bit more about it in Asimov’s Guide to the Bible, which is one of my favorite books — if I’m allowed to judge a book I’ve read not quite half of (in this case, about 500 of about 1200 pages). I’m not sure why I haven’t quoted it before now. Maybe because my time with it is so limited: I only read it on weekends, and mostly just on Sundays — my version of Bible study.

Mine Anointed

The 105th Psalm has a curiously influential verse. The care of God for those who follow him is detailed; as in the Patriarchal Age, when he cared for Abraham and his few descendants, precariously existing in a hostile land:

Psalm 105:14. He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes;

Psalm 105:15. Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

The reference seems to be to the passage in Genesis when God reproves Abimelech, king of Gerar, in a dream, after Abimelech has taken Abraham’s wife, Sarah, into his harem. God says:

Genesis 20:7. Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet … and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die…

This passage in the 105th Psalm served as a king of shield for the priesthood against the secular power. In the middle ages, it was used to protect priests from being tried by secular courts, since the king must do God’s prophets (a term extended, liberally, over the clergy generally) no harm. This was valuable for clergy, since the clerical courts did not pronounce the death sentence, and this was called "benefit of clergy."

This was eventually extended to all who could read (since literacy was virtually confined to the clergy in the middle ages). If a person convicted of murder could read a passage from the Bible, he was exempt from execution but was merely branded on the hand. A second murder, however, would mean execution. Literacy meant one murder free, so to speak, but no more. Soon after 1800, this practice was ended. Perhaps too many people were learning to read. (p. 503–4)