The ecclesiastical courts were generally seen as being more lenient in their prosecutions and punishments, and defendants made many efforts to claim clergy status, often on questionable or fraudulent grounds.

Eventually, the benefit of clergy evolved into a legal fiction in which first-time offenders could receive lesser sentences for some crimes (the so-called "clergyable" ones).

When the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, its emperors issued legal privileges to clerics, particularly bishops, granting them immunity from civic prosecution.

In the early Middle Ages, canon law tended to extend the degree of this privilege, even including criminal matters.

In 1164, however, Henry II promulgated the Constitutions of Clarendon, which established a new system of courts that rendered decisions wholly by royal authority.

After four of Henry's knights murdered Becket in 1170, public sentiment turned against the king, forcing him to make amends with the church.

Over time, this proof of clergyhood was replaced by a literacy test: defendants demonstrated their clerical status by reading from the Latin Bible.

In the British colony of Massachusetts, the two soldiers convicted of manslaughter in the 1770 Boston Massacre were spared execution under the benefit of clergy.

[8][9] By the end of the 16th century, the list of unclergyable offences included murder, rape, poisoning, petty treason, sacrilege, witchcraft, burglary, theft from churches, and pickpocketing.

By this point, the benefit of clergy had been transformed from a privilege of ecclesiastical jurisdiction to a mechanism by which first-time offenders could obtain partial clemency for some crimes.

Eventually, housebreaking, shoplifting goods worth more than 5 shillings, and the theft of sheep and cattle all became felonies without the benefit of clergy.

[13] When the literacy test was abolished in 1706, the lesser sentence given to those who pleaded benefit of clergy was increased to up to 6–24 months' hard labour.

Many states and counties have abolished the clergy benefits by proclamation, statute, or judicial decision; in others, it simply has fallen into disuse without formal abolition.