The clergeon symbolizes otherness through his deformity, which makes him similar to the Jews as embodiments of difference.
Monstrosity remains a powerful metaphor of otherness and it seems that the unusual state the clergeon found himself in might have been fascinating to the medieval audiences not only due to his holiness, but also because of the difference he represented with his throat slit and still reproducing the anthem, Alma Redemptoris Mater.
Here we do not have any allusions to more ordinary activities of children of his age, which makes the clergeon a representative of Curtius' puer senex topos (1990: 98-105).
Another parallelism between Chaucer's clergeon and the figure of Jesus is the fact that the Mass of the Holy Innocents (known also as Childermas and celebrated on the 28th of December) can be traced as one of the tale's sources (Broughton 2005: 589).
While in the play from the Digby manuscript the "children of Israelle" (123) are killed and life cannot be restored to them, Chaucer's clergeon remains in his life-in-death state even when his body has been discovered.
The little clergeon must fulfill his desire to learn the antiphon, Alma redemptoris mater, in secret because if he openly favored it over his primer, he would risk not only scolding but physical punishment as well:
The only place for the clergeon at first to learn the song from his "felawe" and then practice and perform it is, ironically, in the Jewry itself (through which he walks daily to attend school):
In addition to the tale of the little clergeon, Lumiansky dropped three other tales: Chaucer's "Tale of Melibee," "The Monk's Tale," and "The Parson's Tale.