Clergy

Clergy, ^* All who are attached to the ecclesiastical ministry are called the clergy; a clergyman is therefore an ecclesiastical minister.

2. Clergymen were exempted by the emperor Constantine from all civil burdens. Baronius ad ann. 319, 30. Lord Coke says, 2 Inst. 3, ecclesiastical persons have more and greater liberties than other of the king's subjects, wherein to set down all, would take up a whole volume of itself.

3. In the United States the clergy is not established by law, but each congregation or church may choose its own clergyman.

^* From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 1856 Edition. Please see Bouvier's Legal Abbreviations & Abbreviated References for help with obscure nomenclature & references.