ABSTRACT
One of the oldest institutionalized uses of a standardized literacy test on record is that of the reading test1 which originally accompanied a criminous2 cleric’s testimony during trial in medieval and early modern British lay courts. The test’s legal function was to ensure the prudent use of the “benefit of clergy” exemption-a privilege extended to felonious clerics that facilitated their dismissal from trial in the King’s court, which frequently imposed the death penalty, in favor of a trial held in the Bishop’s court, which rarely, if ever, imposed the death penalty. Popularly dubbed the “neck verse” for its ability to quite literally “save the necks” of all literate religious (and later, all secular) clerks accused of capital crimes, this early literacy test claims an extraordinary, though virtually ignored, history that spans more than four hundred years of British common law (c. 1278 [6 Edward I] – 1707 [5 Anne]) and extends across the reigns of not less than nineteen British monarchs.
