A survey of the city and its ecclesiastical institutions reveals an enormous number of secular clergy who were attached in some way to the monastery, the diocese and the churches in the city, not to mention a further but more hidden army of married clerks, who were sometimes notaries and sometimes served the bishop and the priory from father to son. Many of these are only names but some can be traced for some of their career, so that we can see what kinds of living they could earn and even, sometimes, know a little about their relationships.

In the early stages of the story of the Durham parishes many of the clergy must have been married. Although there was legislation in 1076 insisting on celibacy for newly ordained priests, existing clergy were allowed to keep their wives. In 1102, however, Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury said that clergy should abandon their wives and in 1108 there begins to be evidence for the enforcement of this in England. Clearly it was not easy to enforce, especially because the king allowed priests to ignore it for a fee. There continued to be complaints throughout the century about the failure to ensure compliance.

The shadowy history of the ‘clerks of St Cuthbert’, who guarded the body of the saint in its wanderings, and their final ousting by monks in Durham in 1083 therefore occurred in a world where the majority of clergy at all levels expected their heirs to inherit at least some of their ecclesiastical property.