He had for years held some clerical office appertaining to courtly matters, which had enabled him to live in London, and to entrust his parish to his curate.

He had been preacher to the royal beefeaters, curator of theological manuscripts in the Ecclesiastical Courts, chaplain to the Queen's yeomanry guard, and almoner to his Royal Highness the Prince of Rappe-Blankenberg.
His residence in the metropolis, rendered necessary by duties thus entrusted to him, his high connexions, and the peculiar talents and nature of the man, recommended him to persons in power, and Dr.
Proudie became known as a useful and rising clergyman.
Some few years since, even within the memory of many who are not yet willing to call themselves old, a liberal clergyman was a person not frequently to be met.

Sydney Smith was such and was looked on as little better than an infidel; a few others also might be named, but they were _rarae aves_ and were regarded with doubt and distrust by their brethren.

No man was so surely a Tory as a country rector--nowhere were the powers that be so cherished as at Oxford.
When, however, Dr.Whately was made an archbishop, and Dr.Hampden some years afterwards regius professor, many wise divines saw that a change was taking place in men's minds, and that more liberal ideas would henceforward be suitable to the priests as well as to the laity.

Clergymen began to be heard of who had ceased to anathematize papists on the one hand, or vilify dissenters on the other.