If not for the controversy surrounding Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Bush's proposal to channel federal funds to religion-based organizations would probably have fallen on willing ears among conservative black clergymen and women.

Most of the country's conservative clergymen oppose*!

The Ocean City station still broadcasts programs by Dr. D. James Kennedy, a conservative Protestant clergyman.

As vicar of education, Bishop Egan waded into turbulent waters when he tried to replace the long-serving Catholic chaplains at both Columbia and New York Universities with more conservative clergymen.

And he has won the endorsement of the Combatant Clerics, an alliance of socially conservative clergymen that holds the majority in Parliament.

They were an extremely diverse lot that included liberal intellectuals, conservative clergymen, and representatives from Guayaquil's successful business community.

In 1543, several conservative clergymen in Kent banded together to attack and denounce two reformers, Richard Turner and John Bland, before the Privy Council.

Pizzardo was considered to be a highly conservative clergyman.

Though a cleric himself, Mr. Khatami has moved tentatively to relax the rigid social and legal order established by the conservative clergymen who have run Iran since the 1979 revolution.

The conflict between reformers and conservative clergymen is increasingly coming to a head.