Benefit of clergy

Posted by RRC on July 13, 2007

In Reply to: Benefit of clergy posted by Richard Becker on July 13, 2007

: I was recently reading George Orwell's essay on Salavador Dali which is tiled 'Benefit of clergy'. What exactly does benefit of clergy mean?

"Benefit of clergy" means "sanctioned by a religious rite". Most often this refers to marriage as in "The couple is living together without benefit of clergy". Unmarried, they are committing the sin of adultery, but if a clergyman were to say a few words over them they would be married and the same actions would no longer be a sin.

In your essay, Orwell says
"It will be seen that what the defenders of Dali are claiming is a kind of benefit of clergy. The artist is to be exempt from the moral laws that are binding on ordinary people. Just pronounce the magic word 'Art', and everything is O.K."

The priest says "This is a marriage" and sex is okay. Dali says "This is art" and "this" is okay

• Benefit of clergy David FG 14/July/07