I proceed to the second, that is to the mere naturalist or civilian; by whom I mean such an one as lives upon dregs, the very reliques and ruins of the image of God decayed.—Rogers, Naaman the Syrian, p. 104.
Clergy. [The use of clergy in the abstract for learning is quite obsolete. Strictly speaking, it is not the same word as clergy, the collective name for the ministers of God. Clergy (learning) represents Old French clergie, whereas clergy (ministers) is due to Old French clergié (now clergé) = Late Latin clericatum.]
Ne alle the clerkes that ever had witte
Sen the world bigan, ne that lyfes yit,
Couth never telle bi clergy ne arte
Of these payns of helle the thousand parte.
Richard Rolle de Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 4832.
Was not Aristotle, for all his clergy,
For a woman wrapt in love so marvellously
That all his cunning he had soon forgotten?