Classical reasons given by church gripping a nation (6)
I believe the answer is:
causae
'classical reasons given' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.
'church gripping a nation' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'gripping' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are gripped).
'nation' becomes 'usa' (U.S.A. is an example).
'a'+'usa'='ausa'
'ce' going around 'ausa' is 'CAUSAE'.
'by' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for causae that I've seen is " Advantages in Latin".)