CLERC (John le), a very celebrated writer and critic, was born at Geneva in 1657. At sixteen he could read all the celebrated Latin and Greek authors. After studying at Geneva, he went to France in 1678; returned in 1679, and was ordained a minister of the Genevan church. In 1682 he visited England, preaching in the Walloon and Savoy churches for nearly six months, and then passed over to Holland, and was admitted professor of philosophy, polite literature, and the Hebrew tongue, at Amsterdam. He now published his Ars Critica; and in 1686 began, in conjunction with M. de la Crose, his Bibliotheque Universelle et Historique, which was continued to the year 1693, in 26 vols. In 1703 he began his Bibliotheque Choisie, and continued it to 1714, when he commenced another work on the same plan, called Bibliotheque Ancienne et Moderne, which he continued to his death. In 1691 he married the daughter of the copious Italian writer, Gregorio Leti, by whom he had four children, who all died young. Le Clerc is a divine conspicuous among those who have contended for the right of private judgment, and who, at the same time, dogmatise very freely in the use of their own. He evidently leans towards the Socinian school, and treats the Scriptures occasionally with little reverence. His writings, however, are valuable, and, as a whole, should not be neglected by the biblical student. In 1728 he was seized with a palsy and fever; and, after spending the last six years of his life in a state of mental imbecility, died in 1736.

CLERC (John le), called Chevalier, an eminent historical painter, born at Nancy in 1587. He studied in Italy, where he resided twenty years, and was a disciple of Carlo Venetiano, whose style he so effectually imitated, that several of his pictures passed for the work of Venetiano. He was highly esteemed at Venice, and, as a token of public respect, was made a knight of St. Mark. His freedom and lightness of coloring, in which he resembled his master, were the principal beauties of his paintings. He died in 1633. CLERC (Sebastin le), engraver and designer to the French king, was born at Metz in 1637. In 1672 he was admitted into the royal academy of painting and sculpture; and in 1680 made professor of geometry and perspective. He published, besides a great number of designs and prints: 1. A Treatise on Theoretical and Practical Geometry. 2. A Treatise on Architecture; and other works. He died in 1714.

CLE'RGY, n. s. Fr. clergè; Lat, clerus; CLERGYMAN, n. s. ) Greek λnpos, i. e. sorte deligo, the clergy being regarded as the lot or inheritance of God. See onward. The body of VOL. VI.-PART I.

Id.

The convocation give a greater sum Than ever, at one time, the clergy yet Did to his predecessors part withal. Shakspeare. How I have sped among the clergymen, The sums I have collected shall express. Not a few years before the Normans came, the clergy, though in Edward the confessor's days, had lost all good literature and religion, scarce able to read and understand their Latin service; he was a miracle to others who knew his grammar.

Milton. History of England. It seems to be in the power of a reasonable clergyman to make the most ignorant man comprehend his duty. Swift.

CLERGY, as a general name given to the body of ecclesiastics, has been traced to every age of the Christian Church; and some have contended that it is sanctioned by the authority of Scripture. Others conceive that it had its rise at a later period, when the desire of spiritual and secular pre-eminence, and corresponding dominion had perverted the minds of the professors and teachers of Christianity; and the interests of the church became interwoven with that of the state. It is a probable opinion that it was established before the time of Tertullian, towards the close of the second century.

The distinction itself was intended, we are told, to suggest, that the former, that is, the pastors or clergy (for they appropiated the term Apoc to themselves), were selected and contradistinguished from the multitude, as being, in the present world, by way of eminence, God's 'peculium,' or special inheritance. In support of this claim they allege, that God is, in the Old Testament, said to be the inheritance of the Levites, because a determinate share of the sacrifices and offerings made to God was, in part, to serve them instead of an estate in land, such as was given to each of the other tribes. But it has been argued, on the other hand, that the tribe of Levi is nowhere called God's inheritance, though that expression is repeatedly used, with respect to the whole nation. Concerning the whole nation of Israel, Moses, who was himself

B