Wouldn't a professional secretary have been outside the ordained and not bound by the ties which silenced the priests?

I was listening to Melvyn Bragg's programme on the radio this morning, on Voltaire, in which his, and his predecessor Rabalais's writings attacked the failings of the clergy. Every now and then, the issue of those failings, of one sort or another, comes up and is publicised, bu the church goes on.

Penny