158 ELIZABETHAN CLERGY LIST. 
were classed in the Archdeacon’s register as ‘‘ latineé mediocriter 
intell,” and actually only three had any knowledge of the Greek 
tongue! Strype, in his ‘Annals of the Reformation,” states that 
the custom of ordaining unscholarly candidates speedily passed 
away as soon as the urgent necessity had come to an end, and 
implies that the choice of graduates only was the rule after 1573, 
but the manuscript before us conclusively disproves this statement. 
This Lichfield list covers a far wider area than any other that has 
hitherto been made the basis of special comment, and is also of a 
much later date than instances usually quoted, for the first wave 
of the Reformation had fairly settled down by the end of 
Elizabeth’s reign. 
The order in which the benefices and chapelries are given is: 
Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Shropshire, and Warwickshire, and 
follows for the most part the division of rural deaneries. In no 
part of England,.except possibly Lancashire, and certainly in no 
one diocese, is the change that three centuries have made in the 
population more remarkable. In 1603, Birmingham was content 
with a single parson, one Luke Smith, and Mr. Smith, being a 
pluralist and keeping no curates, was also the single parson at 
Solihull, about seven miles distant. Birmingham of 1884, instead 
of finding occupation for half a parson, keeps upwards of sixty 
ministers of the Establishment in full employment, and_ that 
exclusive of the suburbs, many of which are now indistinguishable 
from the town proper. Rugby, which is not at first recognised. 
under its older name of Rookeby, notwithstanding the founding of 
its great grammar school earlier in Elizabeth’s reign, had for a 
parson oné who had no degree and was no preacher. 
The total number of benefices and chapelries enumerated in 
this list is four hundred and sixty-one, and the total of clergy four 
hundred and thirty-three. Out of this total of the clergy, only 
about one-fourth were graduates—viz., one hundred and ten, and 
those who were licensed to preach were less than a fifth, viz., 
eighty-two. 
Of the graduates, thirty-eight were Bachelors of Arts, sixty-five 
Masters of Arts, two Bachelors of Divinity, four Doctors of 
