sentences:  In the early centuries of the office, the Lord Chancellor was a senior cleric, usually though not invariably an Englishman by birth.In the 15th and 16th centuries, a nobleman sometimes held the office, acting through a deputy.From the Reformation on, he was usually a trained lawyer, though the practice of appointing a senior cleric only ended with Michael Boyle, Archbishop of Armagh who retired in 1686.