"Hitherto Barchester had escaped the taint of any extreme rigor of church doctrine. The clergy men of the city and the neighborhood, though very well inclined to promote high-church principles, privileges, and prerogatives, had never committed themselves to tendencies, which are somewhat too loosely called Puseylite practices. They all preached in their black gowns, as their fathers had done before them...and were contented to confine themselves to such ceremonial observances as had been in vogue for the last hundred years." (Chapter 6)

"It would not be becoming were I to travesty a sermon, or even repeat the language of it in the pages of a novel. In endeavoring to depict the characters of the persons of whom I write, I am to a certain extent forced to speak of sacred things. I trust, however, that I shall not be thought to scoff at the pulpit, though some may...