The whole body of clergymen or ministers of religion. Also an abbreviation for “benefit of dergy.” See BENEFIT. Regular clergy. In old English law. Monks who lived secundum regulas (according to the rules) of their respective houses or societies were so denominated, in contradistinction to the parochial clergy, who performed their ministry in the world, in scculo, and who from thence were called “secular” clergy. 1 Chit Bl. 387, note.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
All who are attached to the ecclesiastical ministry are called the clergy; a clergyman is therefore an ecclesiastical minister. 2. Clergymen were exempted by the emperor Constantine from all civil burdens. Baronius ad ann. 319, 30. Lord Coke says, 2 Inst. 3, ecclesiastical persons have more and greater liberties than other of the king’s subjects, wherein to set down all, would take up a whole volume of itself. 3. In the United States the clergy is not established by law, but each congregation or church may choose its own clergyman.