ABSTRACT
Although both monks and secular clergy were alike set apart for a special service of God, their origin was different and they were already recognized as separate “orders.” The secular clergy lived in the world under the immediate rule of the bishop, while monks were engaged in contemplation and the celebration of the divine praises in a monastery. Both were clerks, for they had received the tonsure and been dedicated to the Lord’s service: but the bishop’s clergy were clerks in a special sense and par excellence. The special points which call for notice in connexion with them are the contemporary conception of the clerical militia, the work of the bishop in his see or parochia, ecclesiastical revenues and stipends, and the training and spiritual work of the clergy.
