16 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



father; to which removal he owed his future 

 success and advancement in the world, as ap- 

 peared by the accumulation of preferments upon 

 him within the compass of a few years. 



Mr. Sharp entered into holy orders on the 

 12th of August, 1667, together with Mr. Leigh 

 and Mr. Lovet, who were of the same college. 

 He was ordained deacon and priest on the same 

 day, in the parish church of St. Margaret's, 

 Westminster, by virtue of a faculty from his 

 Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, by the 

 hands of Dr. Fuller, then Bishop of Limerick, 

 afterwards of Lincoln. The assisting presbyters 

 were Dr. Outram, minister of St. Margaret's, 

 (the same who wrote the learned book De Sacri- 

 ficiis,) and Mr. White, afterwards Bishop of Pe- 

 terborough, and Dr. Gardiner, then chaplain to 

 the Duke of Monmouth, and afterwards Bishop 

 of Lincoln. The renowned Bishop Bull had 

 likewise received both orders in one day ; and 

 was but twenty-one years of age when he was 

 thus ordained by Bishop Skinner. That bishop 

 excused himself for this breach of the canons 

 by the necessity of the times ; but Dr. Fuller 

 had something more for his justification, viz. a 

 special dispensation from Dr. Sheldon, the arch- 

 bishop of the province : which, however extra- 

 ordinary, was of sufficient authority, and a sa- 

 tisfactory reason why the three grave and worthy 



