He had been persuaded to accept ordination for the reason, among others, that the Church could be reformed better from within than from without.
But there were few doctrines of the Church that he could honestly teach, and the straightforward course was to abandon the clerical profession.

Nowadays a man in Froude's plight would only have to sign a paper, and he would be free.

But before 1870 orders, even deacon's orders, were indelible.

Neither a priest nor a deacon could sit in Parliament, or enter any other learned profession.

Froude was in great difficulty and distress.