Brewer's: Shaveling

A lad; a young man. In the year 1348 the clergy died so fast of the Black Death that youths were admitted to holy orders by being shaven. “William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, dispensed with sixty shavelings to hold rectories and other livings, that divine service might not cease in the parishes over which they were appointed.” (Blom-field: History of Norfolk, vol. iii.)

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