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Clerical marriage was much more common and more open in Wales and clergy feature in a number of medieval gentry pedigrees. Even monks openly acknowledged their marriages. My own perspective on this is slightly later, in the immediate post-Reformation period, when clerical marriage has been seen as one source for the economic problems of the clergy. However, the clergy of the diocese of Bangor, writing to Thomas Cromwell in defence of clerical marriage, claimed that they would be less well off and less able to exercise hospitality in their parishes if they were forced to separate from their wives. This may not have been their real reason, but they obviously thought it was a credible argument. Maddy Gray %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%