Just what I was hoping for, Eve. Many thanks, Gary A parson (person) should be the clergyman in charge of a parish. A priest is a general term for anyone in Holy Orders, who might be a private chaplain or a cathedral clergyman etc,.] 'Priest' also means a Catholic priest, but those would be keeping their heads down pretty carefully in 1578, unless they wished to be arrested and imprisoned, since Catholicism was illegal