The privilege entitling a cleric, on being accused of a crime, to be exempted from trial by a secular court, and to be subject only to the church courts, which usually dealt with him more leniently. It was a system open to abuse, especially when clerics were numerous and difficult to identify with certainty, as was the case in the Middle Ages. Indeed the mere ability to read was often accepted as proof of clerical status. In England it was a principal issue in the controversy between Archbishop Thomas à Becket and Henry II and the privilege was largely conceded by the crown in the aftermath of Becket’s murder in 1170; later its application was limited by various Acts of Parliament and it was finally abolished in 1827.