English: occupational name for a scribe or secretary, originally
a member of a minor religious order who undertook such duties.
The word clerc denoted a member of a religious order, from Old
English cler(e)c ‘priest’, reinforced by Old French clerc. Both
are from Late Latin clericus, from Greek klērikos, a derivative
of klēros ‘inheritance’, ‘legacy’, with reference to the
priestly tribe of Levites (see Levy) ‘whose inheritance was the
Lord’. In medieval Christian Europe, clergy in minor orders were
permitted to marry and so found families; thus the surname could
become established. In the Middle Ages it was virtually only
members of religious orders who learned to read and write, so
that the term clerk came to denote any literate man.