People seldom set down their expectations of clergy, but often attitudes can be gleaned from the involvement of clergy in local society and their social and economic relations with lay people. The laity had always played a part in the life of the Church as patrons of livings. The attitudes of lay patrons towards clergy and their competence for the task indicates much about lay attitudes to the Church. Similarly, the reactions of lay people towards their parish priest and his work among them reveals something of their concern for spiritual matters. The grounds upon which people complained about clergy and criticised them also throws light on the place of religion in their own lives and in the life of the community and the nation.
Unusually, Lady Elizabeth Hastings had her expectations of a clergyman engraved on a brass plate on the wall of a church of which she was patron. She required:
I. That he content himself with an Orderly and Regular discharge of his Duty as the same is marked out and prescribed to him by human Laws, but from a true fervency of Spirit and Christian Zeal for the Salvation of his People and his own, add to the Obligations requir'd of him by Man the adequate and only sufficient measures of the Gospel, daily abound in the works of his high Galling, rule his own house well, and enforce his Preaching upon the minds of men by holiness of Life and the strength and power of his own Example.
II. That he would daily and earnestly in private Prayer humble himself before the Throne of God for all Spiritual Blessings upon Himself upon his Flock and upon all Mankind.
III. That he would be much in Conversation with his People, and without partiality, or preferring any one to another, he would inform himself of their Spiritual Condition, the respective wants and Occasions of their Souls, and give them their Portion of Meat in due Season and by all the Wisdom and Prudence he is Master of, turn the Stream of their Affections from the momentary and vain Enjoyments of this World to the everlasting Riches and solid Pleasures of the Next. IV. That at every Visit he receives or pays some part of the Discourse should be upon some vital subject of Religion, as the absolute Necessity of having it implanted in the Heart, and what are the Hindrances whereby it is rendered unable to strike root, and fix itself there ... So that having the Kingdom of God established within himself, and in the Souls of all his Sons and Daughters (as in his Ministerial Relation he must ever account his people to be) He and They may be able to stand in the Judgement, and may through God's great Mercy in the Redemption of all Men by his Blessed Son, find their eternal Lot and Portion among his Saints, Amen.
Mongol Invasion, Dissolution of the Borders of Islamic Lands and Encouragement of Cultural Exchange
