Execution was done not by the Church, which was forbidden to kill, but by secular officials.

Over time, Emperors were more frequently selected by a council of the senior officials of the realm, both secular and religious.

They sat first in the Senate, before the secular officials.

Currently the president, Turkey's highest-ranking secular official, is elected by Parliament.

Q. Well, you are a secular official.

Clerics were not to pay taxes; those who did so, and secular officials who collected the money from them, were to be excommunicated.

A senat of high ecclesiastical and secular officials, forming the royal council.

He then went on to a school for children of secular officials at Jokhang monastery.

They might explain the behaviour of the various secular officials.

Religious and secular officials might work side by side, each responsible to different bureaucracies.