a word originally used to denote a learned man, or man of letters; whence the term became appropriated to church-men, who were from thence called clerks, or clergymen; the nobility and gentry being usually bred up to the exercise of arms, and none left but the ecclesiastics to cultivate the sciences.

Clerk is also applied to such as by their course of life, exercise their pens in any court or office, of which there are various kinds: thus,