Template:Clergy defined

Clergy defined

CLERGY. "the body of all people ordained for religious duties, especially in the Christian Church." All who are attached to the ecclesiastical ministry are called the clergy; a clergyman is therefore an ecclesiastical minister.

2. Clergymen were exempted by the emperor Constantine from all civil burdens. Baronius ad ann. 319, 30. Lord

Coke says, 2 Inst. 3, ecclesiastical persons have more and greater liberties than other of the king's subjects, wherein to set down all, would take up a whole volume of itself.

3. In the United States the clergy is not established by law, but each congregation or church may choose its own clergyman. Bouvier's Law Dictionary Revised Sixth Edition, 1856

Before you go on you may also need to know what religion is and what religious duties include. Understanding what the Levites who were the Church in the wilderness were doing as the ordained ministers of God. It may also be important by studying Public religion and Pure Religion and their differences. and then ask yourself which one you depend upon and practice? One uses force and fear and the other charity and love. One makes the word of God to none effect, men subjects and merchandise and curse children and the other returns every man to his family. In one the clergy of the State makes choices for you and the other is a government of servants where the "greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve." and who let you make choices for yourself.

Etymology

"Clergy" is from two Old French words, clergié and clergie, which refer to those with learning and derive from Medieval Latin clericatus, from Late Latin clericus (the same word from which "cleric" is derived). "Clerk", which used to mean one ordained to the ministry, also derives from clericus. Latin clericus was "a priest," noun use of adjective meaning "priestly, belonging to the clerus".

Known Duties

The original clerks had duties and responsibilities of a religious nature but religion was defined as the “Real piety in practice, consisting in the performance of all known duties to God and our fellow men”. The duties of the ministers of God's kingdom and the early Church was to serve the community of the people, or be a society which takes care of its needy.

Therefore how the clerks of conflicting governments either served the God of heaven and those seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness through faith, hope, and charity or they served the gods many of the world which they have chosen for themselves through force, fear, and fealty. The #Clergy of Christ had the duty to feed His sheep and the people had the duty to sit down in love and charity as Christ commanded.

To understand who or what is clergy you would have to understand who the "body" is, the requirements to be counted as "ordained", and what would a list consist of or to include as "religious duties". If you are going to limit those characteristics to the "Christian Church" as legally defined you would have to look to Jesus Christ for what qualifies as His "ecclesiastical minister" and not to Constantine and his "exempted" ministers.

The "ecclesiastical ministers" are those called out by Christ to be in the world but not of the world.

"CHRISTIANITY. The religion established by Jesus Christ." But also, "2. Christianity has been judicially declared to be a part of the common law of Pennsylvania;"

The term Clericalism is the application of the formal, church-based, leadership or opinion of ordained clergy in matters of either the Church or broader political and sociocultural import. There could be numerous distinctions between different forms of Clericalism such as the terms laid down by Christ and explained and exemplified by the Apostles and ministers of the early Church and those terms accepted by the ministers of the church established by Constantine's movement.

Then there is clergyism which is a much more modern term often used by those who reject the idea of any clergy of the Church established by Christ.

The term religion should not be merely what you think about God but if we are going to be consistent with the Greek word Threskia the term should be defined as the "pious performance of your duties to God and your fellow man" as it used to be defined with Pure Religion including those who preform those duties without any tainting of the those duties by benefactors who exercise authority, the [[fathers of the earth]] nor the world in general. While the duties of the Church established by Jesus were clear to the early Church the Church established by Constantine tainted the practice of their religion with contributions from rulers. Most of the needy today are again provided by men who exercise authority while most modern Churches seem consumed with denominations, feelings, theologies and eschatologies.