the parish church. We find traces of him abroad in early days. In the
seventh century, the canons of the Ninth Council of Toledo and of the
Council of Merida tell of his services in the worship of the sanctuary,
and in the ninth century he has risen to prominence in the Gallican
Church, as we gather from the inquiries instituted by Archbishop
Hincmar, of Rheims, who demanded of the rural deans whether each
presbyter had a clerk who could keep school, or read the epistle, or was
able to sing.

In the decretals of Gregory IX there is a reference to the clerk's
office, and his duties obtain the sanction of canon law. Every incumbent
is ordered to have a clerk who shall sing with him the service, read the
epistle and lesson, teach in the school, and admonish the parishioners
to send their children to the church to be instructed in the faith. It
was thus in ancient days that the Church provided for the education of
children, a duty which she has always endeavoured to perform. Her
officers were the schoolmasters. The weird cry of the abolition of tests
for teachers was then happily unknown.

The strenuous Bishop Grosseteste (1235-53), for the better ordering of
his diocese of Lincoln, laid down the injunction that "in every church
of sufficient means there shall be a deacon or sub-deacon; but in the
rest a fitting and honest clerk to serve the priest in a comely habit."
The clerk's office was also discussed in the same century at a synod at
Exeter in 1289, when it was decided that where there was a school within
ten miles of any parish some scholar should be chosen for the office of
parish clerk. This rule provided for poor scholars who intended to
proceed to the priesthood, and also secured suitable teachers for the
children of the parishes.