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CLERKENWELL , a See also: district on the See also: north See also: side of the city of See also: London, See also: England, within. the metropolitan See also: borough of See also: Finsbury (q.v.)
.
It is so called from one of several See also: wells or springs in this district, near which miracle plays were performed by the parish clerks of London
.
This well existed until the See also: middle of the 19th century
.
Here was situated a priory, founded in 1100, which See also: grew to See also: great See also: wealth and fame as the See also: principal institution in England of the Knights Hospitallers of the See also: Order of St See also: John of Jerusalem
.
Its gateway, erected in 1504, and remaining in St John's Square, served various purposes after the suppression of the monasteries, being, for example, the birthplace of the Gentleman's
See also: Magazine in 1731, and the scene of Dr See also: Johnson's
See also: work in connexion with that journal
.
In See also: modern times the See also: gatehouse again became associated with the Order, and is the headquarters of the St John's Ambulance Association
.
An Early See also: English crypt remains beneath the neighbouring parish See also: church of St John, where the notorious deception of the "
See also: Cock Lane Ghost," in which Johnson took great See also: interest, was exposed
.
Adjoining the priory was St Mary's See also: Benedictine nunnery, St See also: James's church (1792) marking the site, and preserving in its vaults some of the
See also: ancient monuments
.
In the 17th century Clerkenwell became a fashionable place of residence
.
A prison erected here at this See also: period gave place later to the See also: House of
„ „ Detention, notorious as the scene of a Fenian outrage in 1867,
'The accepted English pronunciation, See also: clark, is found in when it was sought to See also: release certain prisoners by blowing up See also: part See also: southern English as early as the 15th century; but See also: northern dialects
still preserve the e See also: sound (” clurk "), which is the See also: common See also: pro- of the See also: building
.
Clerkenwell is a centre of the See also: watch-making and nunciation in See also: America. s' ,eweller's See also: industries, long established here; and the Northamptoll
were called minor orders, and in 1350 the See also: privilege was extended to secular as well as to religious clerks; and, finally, the test of being a clerk was the ability to read the opening words of verse z of Psalm li., hence generally known as the " neck-verse." Even this requirement was abolished in 1705
.
In 1487 it was enacted that every layman, when convicted of a clergyable felony, should be branded on the thumb, and disabled from claiming the benefit a second See also: time
.
The privilege was extended to peers, even if they could not read, in 1547, and to See also: women, partially in 1622 and fully in 1692
.
The partial exemption claimed by the Church did not apply to the more atrocious crimes, and hence offences came to be divided into clergyable and unclergyable
.
According to the common practice in England of working out modern improvements through antiquated forms, this exemption was made the means of modifying the severity of the criminal See also: law
.
It became the practice to claim and be allowed the benefit of See also: clergy; and when it was the intention by See also: statute to make a See also: crime really punishable with See also: death, it was awarded " without benefit of clergy." The benefit of clergy was abolished by a statute of 1827, but as this statute did not repeal that of 1547, under which peers were given the privilege, a further statute was passed in 1841 putting peers on the same footing as See also: commons and clergy
.
For a full account of benefit of clergy see See also: Pollock and See also: Maitland, See also: History of English Law, vol. i
.
424-440; also See also: Stephen, History of the Criminal Law of England, vol. i.; E
.
See also: Friedberg, Corpus See also: juris canonici (See also: Leipzig, 1879-1881)
.
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