Who were the clergy in the middle ages?

Answer 1

There were two kinds of clergy, and their lives were very different.

Some clergy were monastic. They were called regular clergy, and were the monks and abbots who lived and worked at monasteries. They did all sorts of things from farming the monastery's fields, cooking, cleaning, to transcribing books such as bibles. They were called regular because they lead a very ordered, regulated, life: early to rise and early to bed; attend chapel up to six times every day, including getting up for chapel at midnight; obey the superiors; no money or ownership; no family, and no sex.

Other clergy were called the secular clergy, because they tended secular people. They were deacons, priests, and bishops. They lived among the people they served, and though their lives were simple and theoretically chaste, they lived more like ordinary people, often in their own houses. Sometimes they had jobs outside the church, as in the case of Thomas Becket when he was the Chancellor for King Henry II. Some of these clergy lived as lords, and in fact the bishops were regarded as lords. Some were important politically, as in the case of the three bishops who were among the seven men who elected the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.

Answer 2

There were two types of clergy in the medieval Catholic Church. One was called regular clergy, and consisted of those clergy who served in monasteries and monastic offices. These included abbots and monks. The other was called secular clergy, and these included popes, bishops, priests, and deacons. They were called secular because they served people of the secular world.

For legal purposes, such as determining who was entitled to benefit of clergy in the courts, in some countries anyone who was able to read was considered clergy, and this even included students. The application of the term in this manner was a formality and had nothing to do with whether the person was actually a member clergy.

Answer 3

The clergy attended to preaching, teaching, and caring for the sick. The clergy upheld the doctrines of the Catholic Church and gave stability to the society.