This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Cleric is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
A cleric (Ancient Greek κληρικός - klērikos), clergyman (pl. clergymen), or churchman (pl. churchmen) is a member of the clergy of a religion, especially one who is a priest, preacher, or other religious professional. It is often used to refer to the religious leadership in Islam, where the term "priest" is not accurate and where terms such as "Alim" are not widely understood in the English-speaking world.
Within Christianity, especially in Eastern Christianity and Roman Catholicism, the term cleric refers to any individual who has received the clerical tonsure, including deacons, priests, and bishops. In Roman Catholicism, the tonsure was a prerequisite for receiving any of the minor orders or major orders before the minor orders and the subdiaconate were abolished following the Second Vatican Council. Thus those individuals who have received the tonsure, but are not deacons, priests, or bishops, are properly referred to as clerics.[1] Minor Orders are still given in the Eastern Catholic Churches, and 'cleric' is the normal title given to seminarians and those with minor orders.
The term "clerk" derives from "cleric,"[1] since in medieval times the clergy were one of the few groups who could read, and therefore were often employed to do bookkeeping and similar work. The term "clerical work" continues to this day to refer to such functions.
References
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 18 September 2008, at 02:27.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Cleric".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.