and laity: the clergy,
comprehending all persons in holy orders, and in ecclesiastical
offices, will be the subject of the following chapter.

THIS venerable body of men, being separate and set apart from the rest
of the people, in order to attend the more closely to the service of
almighty God, have thereupon large privileges allowed them by our
municipal laws: and had formerly much greater, which were abridged at
the time of the reformation, on account of the ill use which the
popish clergy had endeavoured to make of them. For, the laws having
exempted them from almost every personal duty, they attempted a total
exemption from every secular tie. But it is observed by sir Edward
Coke[a], that, as the overflowing of waters doth many times make the
river to lose it's proper chanel, so in times past ecclesiastical
persons, seeking to extend their liberties beyond their true bounds,
either lost or enjoyed not those which of right belonged to them. The
personal exemptions do indeed for the most part continue. A clergyman
cannot be compelled to serve on a jury, nor to appear at a court-leet
or view of frank pledge; which almost every other person is obliged to
do[b]: but, if a layman is summoned on a jury, and before the trial
takes orders, he shall notwithstanding appear and be sworn[c]. Neither
can he be chosen to any temporal office; as bailiff, reeve, constable,
or the like: in regard of his own continual attendance on the sacred
function[d]. During his attendance on divine service he is privileged
from arrests in civil suits[e]. In cases also of felony, a clerk in
orders shall have the benefit of his clergy, without being branded in
the hand; and may likewise have it more than once: in both which
particulars he is distinguished from a layman[f]. But as they have
their privileges, so also they have their disabilities, on account of
their spiritual avocations. Clergymen, we have seen[g], are incapable
of sitting in the house of commons; and by statute 21 Hen. VIII. c.
13. are not allowed to take any lands or tenements to farm, upon pain
of 10_l._ _per_ month, and total avoidance of the lease; nor shall
engage in any manner of trade, nor sell any merchandize, under
forfeiture of the treble value. Which prohibition is consonant to the
canon law.

[Footnote a: 2 Inst. 4.]

[Footnote b: F.N.B. 160. 2 Inst. 4.]

[Footnote c: 4 Leon. 190.]

[Footnote d: Finch. L. 88.]

[Footnote e: Stat. 50 Edw. III. c. 5. 1 Ric. II. c