the order of an acolyte, taking from thee in token thereof this small pitcher and taper staff. We degrade thee from the order of an exorcist, and take from thee in token thereof the book of exorcisms. We degrade thee from the order of reader, and take from thee in token thereof the book of divine lessons. Thee also, the said William Sawtre, vested in a surplice as an ostiary,[254] do we degrade from that order, taking from thee the surplice and the keys of the church. Furthermore, as a sign of actual degradation, we have caused the crown and clerical tonsure to be shaved off in our presence, and to be entirely obliterated like a layman; we have also caused a woollen cap to be put upon thy head, as a secular layman." The word _clericus_--clerk--was one of very wide and rather vague significance, and included not only the various grades of clerks in orders, of whom we have spoken, but also all men who followed any kind of occupation which involved the use of reading and writing; finally, every man who could read might claim the "benefit of clergy," _i.e._, the legal immunities of a clerk. The word is still used with the same comprehensiveness and vagueness of meaning. Clerk in Orders is still the legal description of a clergyman; and men whose occupation is to use the pen are still called clerks, as lawyers' clerks, merchants' clerks, &c. Clerks were often employed in secular occupations; for example, Alan Middleton, who was employed by the convent of St. Alban's to collect their rents, and who is represented on page 63 ante in the picture from their "Catalogus Benefactorum" (Nero D. vii., British Museum), is tonsured, and therefore was a clerk. Chaucer gives us a charming picture of a poor clerk of Oxford, who seems to have been a candidate for holy orders, and is therefore germane to our subject:-- "A clerke there was of Oxenforde also, That unto logike hadde long ygo, As lene was his horse as is a rake, And he was not right fat, I undertake, But looked holwe and thereto soberly. Ful thredbare was his overest courtepy,[255] For he hadde getten him yet no benefice, Ne was nought worldly to have an office.[256] For him was lever han at his beddes hed A twenty bokes, clothed in black or red, Of Aristotle and his philosophie, Than robes riche, or fidel or sautrie. But all be that he was a philosophre, Yet hadde he but little gold in cofre, But all that he might of his frendes hente,[257] On bokes and on lerning he it spente; And besely gan for the soules praye Of hem that yave him wherewith to scholaie,[258] Of studie toke he moste cure and hede. Not a word spake he more than was nede, And that was said in forme and reverence, And short and quike, and ful of high sentence. Souning in moral vertue was his speche, And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche." In the Miller's Tale Chaucer gives us a sketch of another poor scholar of Oxford. He lodged with a carpenter, and