[2] Cliffe was commissary of the diocese of London between 1522 and 1529, instituted to the prebend of Twyford in St Paul's Cathedral in 1526.
He was appointed archdeacon of London three years later, prebendary of Fenton in York Minster in 1532.
[1] Convocation sought Cliffe's advice, as a civil lawyer, on the royal divorce, in 1533.
On his preferment to the deanery of Chester he was immediately thrown into the Fleet prison at the instance of Sir Richard Cotton, comptroller of the king's household.
[2] Cliffe was one of the authors of the treatise The Godly and Pious Institution of a Christian Man, commonly known as the Bishops' Book, published in 1537.