McGrath said, in part:

As I've understood it "benefit of clergy" was about the practice that, if a cleric commited an offence, it was up to the church to deal with him by Church law, rather than the secular authorities by Crown law.

That's part of the same thing, as I get it. The malefactor, if qualified, is taken into the arms of the church and is subject to church law rather than the civil law. It's just a little wider picture than I had painted.

Dave Oesterreich