A treatise of the principal grounds and maximes of the lawes of this nation very usefull and commodious for all students and such others as desire the knowledge and understandings of the laws / written by that most excellent and learned expositor of the law, W.N.

Clerici.

Clericus, in English we read Clerke. It hath with us two sundry kindes of acceptations. In the first sense it noteth such a one, who by his practise and course of life doth exercise his pen in any the Kings Majesties Courts, or elsewhere, making it his calling or profession: hereupon you shal find in the current of Law, mention made of divers Clerkes; as for ex∣ample, The Clerke of the Crown: The Clerke of Assise: The Clerke of the Warrrants: The Clerke of the Market: The Clerke of the Peace, with many others. In the second sense it denoteth such a one as belongeth to,

and is imployed about the Ministry of the Church, that being his function: in which signification it is to be taken in this place, and in the like; for I, for my part, did never find Clerk in the first sense appropriated to any, as an addition simply. We have the use of the word Clericus, from Clerus, or Clerecu∣tus, signifying the Clergy, that is to say, the whole number of those, which properly so called, or rather strictly, are de Clero domi∣ni, i. e. Hereditate sive sorte domini, for Cle∣rus cometh from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a Greekword, sig∣nifying the same with sors in Latine; name∣ly, a lot or portion.