PRIVILEGE
PRI’VILEGE (Lat. privilegium, from privata lex, a private law), a special ordinance or regulation, in virtue of which an individual or a class enjoys certain immunities or rights from or beyond the common provisions of the general law of the community. It differs from a dispensation inasmuch as the latter merely relaxes the existing law for a particular case or cases, while the privilege is a permanent and general right. Of ancient and medieval legislation, the law of privilege formed an important branch; and, in truth, the condition of the so-called ‘ privileged classes ‘ was in all respects different, socially, civilly, and even religiously, from that of the non-privileged. In canon law, there were two privileges enjoyed by the clergy, which deserve especial notice from the frequency of the historical allusions to them�the ‘ privilege of the canon’ (privilegium canonis) and the ‘privilege of the forum,’ privilegium fori). By the former, the person of the clergyman, of whatever degree, was protected from violence by the penalty of excommunication against the offender; by the latter�known in England as ‘benefit of clergy’(q. v.)�the clergyman was exempted from the ordinary civil tribunals, and could only be tried in the ecclesiastical court. Most of the purely civil privileges are abolished throughout Europe by modern legislation.