26 MAY 1967, Page 27

Who gets the deanery ?

Sir: Mr Smythe, who seems to think that I am joking, accuses me of getting my facts wrong (Letters, 19 May). I am serious and I think that my facts are right

The Statute of Uniformity says nothing explicitly to exclude laymen from deaneries (I had myself explained that the purely spiritual functions can be delegated to sub-deans), and even if it did, such a clause can be dispensed with in individual cases. By statute, the Provost of Eton was a priest. Marcan- tonio de Dominis was not alive in 1552. Bishop Williams was not Lord Chancellor but Lord Keeper. H. R. Trevor-Roper 8 St Aldates, Oxford