Nor was this all, for in the same year (1531) an Act[467] was passed by which escapes from the bishop’s prison were made felony for the clerks; those within orders were to be sent back to their prison, to abide there without release. In 1533[468] clergy was taken away from all who refused to plead, or who challenged above twenty jurymen peremptorily. In 1536[469] clergymen within orders were to be placed on the same footing with other clerks, but this law only lasted about a decade. But now the immunity of the clergy began to be taken away by a long series of statutes exempting particular crimes from any indulgence.[470] In 1576 convicted clerks ceased to be handed over to the bishops to make purgation.[471] For all “clergyable” felonies, Lords of Parliament[472] (even when they could not read) and the clergy in orders were immediately released. The rest who could read were discharged for a first offence upon being branded, but the Court might also order their detention in prison for not more than a year; the captives who could not read were speedily hanged.[473] As the privilege of clergy became less worth having it was extended: to the _bigami_, or twice married, in 1547, and to women[474] (professed nuns had always lived under the Church’s rule) in 1692. Upon conviction they were to be treated in the same way as the men in similar cases, that is, branded upon the hand, and then discharged, either at once or after imprisonment not exceeding one year. In 1699[475] it was ordered that the branding should be done upon the face, but this cruel marking was found to prevent the victims from obtaining employment and to render them desperate, and the law was repealed six years afterwards in the reign of Anne.[476] In 1705 the reading test was abandoned. The distinction had come to lie between offences, not offenders,[477] and all were admitted to “clergy” who had been convicted of any of these minor felonies which still remained clergyable.[478] The Act of 1705 also provided that such convicts should be liable to be sent to houses of correction or to public work-houses, for periods of not less than six months or exceeding two years, at the discretion of the magistrates. In 1717[479] it was enacted that persons (other than peers or clerks in orders) guilty of clergyable offences might be transported for seven years[480] (the usual sentence was for fourteen), instead of being branded or whipped.[481] In 1779[482] persons liable to be burned in the hand might escape with a fine, or they might be whipped in public or private, not more than three times; women were to be flogged in the presence of females. By this Act the branding was abolished in practice; and about half a century later all that remained of the old privilege was done away with in the reign of George IV.[483]