Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

BENEFICIUM CLERICALE

BENEFIT SOCIETIES

128

oy which a surety could, before paying the creditor, compel him to make over to him the actions which belonged to the stipulator, so as to avail himself of them. Sandars, Just. Inst. (5th Ed.) 332, 351. BENEFICIUM CLEBICALE. Benefit of clergy, which see. BENEFICIUM COMPETENTLY. In Scotch law. The privilege of competency. A privilege which the grantor of a gratuitous obligation was entitled to, by which he might retain sufficient for his subsistence, if, before fulfilling the obligation, he was reduced to indigence. Bell. In the civil law. The right which an Insolvent debtor had, among the Romans, on making cession of his property for the benefit of his creditors, to retain what was required for him to live honestly according to his con dition. 7 Toullier, n. 258. BENEFICIUM DIVISIONIS. In civil and Scotch law. The privilege of one of sev eral co-sureties (cautioners) to insist upon paying only his pro rata share of the debt. Bell. BENEFICIUM INVENTARII. BENEFIT OF INVENTORY. See Beneficium non datum nisi propter officium. Hob. 148. A remuneration not given, unless on account of a duty performed. BENEFICIU M ORDINIS. In civil and Scotch law. The privilege of order. The privilege of a surety to require that the cred itor should first proceed against the principal and exhaust his remedy against him, before resorting to the surety. Bell. BENEFICIUM SEPARATIONS. In the civil law. The right to have the goods of an heir separated from those of the testator In favor of creditors. BENEFIT BUILDING SOCIETY. The original name for what is now more commonly called a "building society," (q.v.) BENEFIT OF CESSION. In the civil law. The release of a debtor from future imprisonment for his debts, which the law operates in his favor upon the surrender of his property for the benefit of his creditors. Poth. Proc. Civil, pt. 5, c. 2, § 1. BENEFIT OF CLERGY. In its orig inal sense, the phrase denoted the exemption which was accorded to clergymen from the jurisdiction of the secular courts, or from ar rest or attachment on criminal process issu

ing from those courts in certain particular cases. Afterwards, it meant a privilege of exemption from the punishment of death accorded to such persons as were clerks, oi who could read. This privilege of exemption from capital punish ment was anciently allowed to clergymen only, but afterwards to all who were connected with the church, even to its most subordinate officers, and at a still later time to all persons who could read, (then called "clerks,") whether ecclesiastics or laymen. It does not appear to have been extended to cases of high treason, nor did it apply to mere misdemeanors. The privilege was claimed after the person's conviction, by a species of motion in arrest of judgment, technically called "praying his clergy." As a means of testing his clerical char acter, he was given a psalm to read, (usually, or always, the fifty-first,) and, upon his reading it correctly, he was turned over to the ecclesiastical courts, to be tried by the bishop or a jury of twelve clerks. These heard him on oath, with his wit nesses and compurgators, who attested their be lief in his innocence. This privilege operated greatly to mitigate the extreme rigor of the crim inal laws, but was found to involve such gross abuses that parliament began to enact that certain crimes should be felonies "without benefit of clergy," and finally, by St. 7 Geo IV. c. 28, § 6, it was altogether abolished. The act of congress of April 30, 1790, § 30, provided that there should be no benefit of clergy for any capital crime against the United States, and, if this privilege formed a part of the common law of the several states before the Revolution, it no longer exists. BENEFIT OF DISCUSSION. In the civil law. The right which a surety has to cause the property of the principal debtor to be applied in satisfaction of the obligation in the first instance. Civil Code La. arts. 3014 3020. In Scotch law. That whereby the anteced ent heir, such as the heir of line in a pursuit against the heir of tailzie, etc., must be first pursued to fulfill the defunct's deeds and pay his debts. This benefit is likewise compe BENEFIT OF INVENTORY. In tbe civil law. The privilege which the heir ob tains of being liable for the charges and debts of the succession, only to the value of the effects of the succession, by causing an inventory of these effects within the time and manner prescribed by law. Civil Code La. art. 1032. BENEFIT SOCIETIES. Under this and several similar names, in various states, corporations exist to receive periodical pay ments from members, and hold them as a fund to be loaned or given to members need tent in many cases to cautioners. BENEFIT OF DIVISION. beneficium divisionis, (q. ©.) Same as

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