[app. formed after Ger. clerisei, in late L. clēricia, Sp. clerecía, Pg. clerezia (see CLERGY). Introduced by Coleridge to express a notion no longer associated with CLERGY.] Learned men as a body, scholars.
1818. Coleridge, Lit. Rem. (1836), I. 238. After the Revolution … a learned body, or clerisy, as such, gradually disappeared. Ibid. (a. 1834), Table-t. (1836), 160. The clerisy of a nation, that is, its learned men, whether poets, or philosophers, or scholars.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess. Manners (1858), II. 421. The artist, the scholar, and in general the clerisy.
¶ It has also been used for clericism, clericity.
1858. Times, 28 Aug., 10/5. Removed the restrictions of clerisy and celibacy.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 336. In him [Lessing] we see a layman, alike indifferent to clerisy and heresy.
