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They also sat in Parliament in the House of Lords
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because they were the lords of the church--
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but an important distinction, of course,
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was that their positions were not inheritable.
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They were appointed--
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in the early sixteenth century appointed by the pope,
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though usually on the advice and recommendation of the king.
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So we've looked at the peerage, the greater nobility.
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Then there was the lesser nobility
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which contemporaries referred to usually as the 'gentry'.
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They were themselves internally differentiated into
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knights, esquires and mere gentlemen.