All 3 Uses of
clergy
in
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- It is true that my neighbour Chant's daughter had lately caught up the fashion of the younger clergy round about us for decorating the Communion-table—altar, as I was shocked to hear her call it one day—with flowers and other stuff on festival occasions.†
Chpt 4
- "We've just had up a story about—" Durbeyfield began, and thereupon related in detail to his wife a discussion which had arisen at the inn about the clergy, originated by the fact of his daughter having married into a clerical family.†
Chpt 5 *
- —old Mr Clare; one of the most earnest of his school; one of the few intense men left in the Church; not so intense as the extreme wing of Christian believers with which I have thrown in my lot, but quite an exception among the Established clergy, the younger of whom are gradually attenuating the true doctrines by their sophistries, till they are but the shadow of what they were.†
Chpt 6
Definition:
formal religious leaders (typically in Christianity)
Clergy is typically used in reference to Christian churches; however, clerics (members of the clergy) are referred to in different ways for different denominations. A Catholic priest is the equivalent of a Protestant minister. A pastor is any Christian cleric in charge of a congregation or parish. The clergy is distinguished from the laity.