It appears that an attempt was made to enforce celibacy on the holders
of minor orders, an experiment which was not crowned with success.
William Lyndewoode, Official Principal of the Archbishop of Canterbury
in 1429, speaks thus of the married clerk:--

"He is a clerk, not therefore a layman; but if twice married he must be
counted among laymen, because such an one is deprived of all clerical
privilege. If, however, he were married, albeit not twice, yet so long
as he wears the clerical habit and tonsure he shall be held a clerk in
two respects, to wit, that he may enjoy the clerical privilege in his
person, and that he may not be brought before the secular judges. But in
all other respects he shall be considered as a layman."

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the parish clerks became
important officials. We shall see presently how they were incorporated
into fraternities or guilds, and how they played a prominent part in
civic functions, in state funerals, and in ecclesiastical matters. The
Reformation rather added to than diminished the importance of the office
and the dignity of the holder of it.

[Illustration: THE MEDIÆVAL CLERK]

[Illustration: THE CLERK IN PROCESSION]

The continuity of the office is worthy of record. From the days of
Augustine to the present time it has never ceased to exist. The clerk is
the last representative of the minor orders which the ecclesiastical
changes wrought in the sixteenth century have left us. Prior to the
Reformation there were sub-deacons who wore alb and maniple, acolytes,
the tokens of whose office were a taper staff and small pitcher,