WIVES OF ECCLESIASTICS

If you do not think that enough already has been said upon this subject, I should be glad to direct your attention to a passage from Chaucer cited in Campbell's valuable and most interesting *Lives of the Lord Chancellors* (vol. i. p. 259.). The noble and learned author gives a conclusive answer to your correspondent's difficulty, when, writing of William of Wickham, he says— "It has been supposed that he had early taken deacon's orders, because in 1352 he was styled 'clericus,' or clerk; but this designation was given to men in civil employments, although not in the Church, and hitherto he ha…