Senior churchmen easily shocked by a setback (8)
I believe the answer is:
primates
'senior churchmen' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'easily shocked by a setback' is the wordplay.
'easily shocked' becomes 'prima' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a setback' becomes 'tes' (I've seen this in other clues).
'prima'+'tes'='PRIMATES'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for primates that I've seen before include "Apt miser including archbishop and apes" , "Apes; bishops" , "Archbishops or apes" , "Animals including monkeys and apes" , "Lemurs, apes, men, etc." .)