Til that Elizabethan era English poet and playwright Ben Jonson got into a duel with an actor named Gabriel Spenser. Jonson had been a soldier in the Netherlands during the Dutch revolt against Spain, so probably not a good target for Spenser to challenge to a duel, but Gabe might have been a person who needed to work on his diplomacy skills, to say the least. I read also that the actor had gotten into an argument with a goldsmith's son once, who reportedly threw a candelabra at him, so he responded by stabbing him to death through the eye. This time though it was Spenser who got himself killed, and Ben Jonson won the swordfight.
Jonson was arrested for murder after the duel, and expected to be hanged, but saved his skin by posing as a church cleric. He had made use of a holdover in English law from the medieval era, known as benefit of clergy, where a person connected with the church was shown leniency, or could even claim immunity in many legal proceedings, and be tried only in an ecclesiastical court by their peers. I knew this was part of the law during the middle ages, but hadn't heard of some of the creative ways that laypersons found of exploiting this loophole.
At this time the legal test for who could receive benefit of clergy was simply being able to read a passage from the bible. Literacy rates were low for the average person in Tudors England, so reading, especially in Latin, was considered a skill of the clergy. The church was one of the few institutions where a person would be taught to read. However, Jonson waa fortune enough to have received a classical education at a time where most people didn't have the opportunities to go to school, so he could read Latin too, if he felt like it, passed this test, and was released from jail. He just had to offer up goods in restitution, and had a mark put on his thumb. He was a colorful character indeed.
