The Church set itself against the
atrocious mangling, and branding, and hanging that was being dealt
out blindly, hastily, and indiscriminately, to every kind of
transgressor; and inasmuch as the Church law and the law of the land
six hundred years ago were often in conflict, the Church law acted to
a great extent as a check upon the shocking ferocity of the criminal
code. And this is how the check was exercised.
A man who was a _cleric_ was only half amenable to the law of
the land. He was a citizen of the realm, and a subject of the king,
but he was _more_; he owed allegiance to the Church, and claimed
the Church's protection also. Accordingly, whenever a _cleric_
got into trouble, and there was only too good cause to believe that
if he were brought to his trial he would have a short shrift and no
favour, scant justice and the inevitable gallows within twenty-four
hours at the longest, he proclaimed himself a _cleric_, and
demanded the protection of the Church, and was forthwith handed over
to the custody of the ordinary or bishop. The process was a clumsy
one, and led, of course, to great abuses, but it had a good side. As
a natural and inevitable consequence of such a privilege accorded to
a class, there was a very strong inducement to become a member of
that class; and as the Church made it easy for any fairly educated
man to be admitted at any rate to the lower orders of the ministry,
any one who preferred a professional career, or desired to give
himself up to a life of study, enrolled himself among the
_clerics_, and was henceforth reckoned as belonging to the
clergy.
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