Among the many themes that have been rehearsed for the fifteenth-century English Church, the issue of ‘title’ for priestly ordinands may seem recondite. However, the study of title has wide implications for the study and understanding of the late medieval clergy. It helps to shed light not just on the workings of the ordination process but also on the struggle to obtain preferment and Church livings that was so critical for the secular cleric. While those men who were part of the elite cadre of the clergy were able to obtain preferment to multiple benefices, others who had more modest careers had to seek security and remuneration in whatever way they could. The study of title feeds into the debate about the level of venality among the religious houses and the secular clergy, and whether the need to obtain a sustainable income was an overwhelming imperative. The gauntly dismissive view of religious houses as hopelessly corrupt or incompetent has long since been challenged. The study of title can help to confirm just how secure that reassessment of their reputation can be. In the diocese of Salisbury (the focus of this study) the records of title also provide some highly informative details about the educational status and geographical origins of ordinands. The model of the fifteenth-century Church as one that fostered a more highly educated clergy with a focus around the universities is one that the study of title can help to clarify. The importance of Oxford, with its geographical proximity to the diocese of Salisbury, is reflected in the records of title for the diocese. The engagement of religious houses with the provision of title also illuminates the strong relationship between the secular and regular clergy throughout the century. The later break with Rome and the suppression of the religious houses must have had a very disruptive effect on a long-established process of clerical recruitment. For all these reasons the issue of title is worthy of continuing study, and the source used, that of the ordination records, demands further and more detailed scrutiny. These records often provide the only trace we have of many secular clergy, and the lack of a comprehensive database across England and Wales for the late medieval period frustrates any attempt at a full understanding of these men's ordinations and their early careers.