The law includes with clerics, monks, deaconesses, nuns, ascetics; and the word " clerics " covered persons in minor orders, down to doorkeepers.
The emperor Justinian (483-565), in whose reign the greatness of the Eastern empire culminated, sent two Nestorian monks to China, who returned with eggs of the silkworm concealed in a hollow cane, and thus silk manufactures were established in the Peloponnesus and the Greek islands.
In 1086 the bishop of Sarum and the monks of Sherborne held the place, which seems to have been of fair size and an agricultural centre.
Of the elected members 3 are returned by the " black " clergy (the monks), 3 by the " white " clergy (seculars), 5 18 by the corporations of nobles, 6 by the academy of sciences and the universities, 6 by the chambers of commerce, 6 by the industrial councils, 34 by the governments having zemstvos, 16 by those having no zemstvos, and 6 by Poland.
In later times his regulations enjoyed a high reputation, and were adopted by the monks and nuns of Port Royal.