A man who claimed clergy was examined as to his scholarship, being required to read a passage,[333] usually from the 51st Psalm, which was called his “neck verse.”[334] Then said the lay Court to the bishop’s representative, “Legit ut clericus?” and the examiner replied, “Legit,” or “Non legit”;[335] and the person would either be remitted to the ordinary or sentenced by the judge, although it was forbidden to teach an accused person his letters[336] while he awaited trial (and he might have to lie five or six years in the bishop’s prison until he could be presented at the assizes—Pollock and Maitland, _Hist. Eng. Law_, p. 442); yet foreigners might read from books in their own language,[337] and the blind could claim clerkship if they could speak in the Latin tongue. Clearly, to be tried by the Ecclesiastical Courts was looked upon as being a privilege and an advantage by the person accused.[338] He had every chance of acquitting himself[339] by means of the Canonical Purgation (see Compurgation, _ante_);[340] and even if he happened to be condemned by bishop or abbot,[341] in case he failed to obtain the necessary compurgators, or were delivered over _absque purgatione_ (_i.e._ not allowed to make his purgation),[342] or even if, from religious fears, he refused to swear innocence,[343] the ecclesiastical punishments were generally merciful, except for such deadly sins as heresy or witchcraft. The clergy were forbidden by the Canons to impose sentences of death or mutilation;[344] the injunction was repeated by Archbishop Ecgberht.[345] “We threaten anathema,” wrote Archbishop Richard in the year 1175,[346] “to that priest who takes the office of sheriff or reeve.” Again in 1215 were the clergy forbidden the judgment of blood.[347] They were not, said a Council of Toledo,[348] to sit as judges, even at the command of a ruler, in cases of treason, unless he first promised to remit the red penalties. At the Council of Auxerre[349] the clergy were prohibited from witnessing the usual torturing, of the prisoners, or from lingering round the trepalium when it was in progress. In fact, except for acts or thoughts which it considered to be high crimes against the soul, the Church was milder than the mediæval State.