CLERGY

The ecclesiastical body as distinguished from the laity. The word clergy seems to be derived from Gr. xX/}poc, a lot or inheritance; Lat. clems, whence cleric us, a clerk or clergyman; plur. cleric i, whence clerge, clergy; and is supposed to allude to a custom, whe ever, was never general, of choosing the clergy by lot: or as St. Jerome says, to signify that the clergy are the lot and portion of the Lord, or Ihe Lord il their lot. Perhaps the true derivation is rather to be traced from the lots (»rXr)poi) by which the apostles chose Matthias to be one of their number. (Acts, 11. 26.) Clerk (Lat. cleric us) is still the legal appellation of a clergyman. The clergy being exclusively the learned part of the community in the middle ages, the word hence came to signify an educated person; and thus acquired the sense of a scribe or writer in France and England. [s. 253]