Note 602:2 — Chapter XXIII · THE MEDIÆVAL CHURCH AT ITS HEIGHT
Reading edition
As late as the thirteenth century, an offender who wished to prove that he was a priest in order to obtain the privilege of trial by a church court had to show that he could read a single line. This was called benefit of clergy. See Robinson, Readings, vol. i., ch. 16; Lea, Hist. of Inq., iii., 57.