182 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



upon such their application. Upon which, Arch- 

 deacon Nicholson, to relieve his diocesan, con- 

 sulted his Grace as Metropolitan. And this 

 occasioned the following letter, in answer to the 

 enquiry. 



" Reverend Sir, 



** I had the favour of your's, which that 

 I did not answer sooner, you must impute to 

 the many affairs of sundry kinds (some of them 

 small enough, but unavoidable) which do here 

 take up our time. 



'* I myself have always been averse to such 

 sort of confederacies or combinations, whether 

 of clergy or others, as are now on foot every 

 where ; whether they be those they call religious 

 societies, or those of a later standing, which go 

 under the name of societies for reformation ; as 

 doubting whether they be legal in themselves, 

 (though, with submission, I think it may bear a 

 dispute whether they come under those * con- 

 venticles which are forbid in the 1 2th and 73d 

 canons). And apprehending likewise, that some 

 time or other we may feel ill consequences from 

 them. And for these reasons I refused my sub- 

 scription the last year to that book which was 

 writ for the recommending these societies ; 

 though I was earnestly, by letters from two of 

 the bishops, pressed to join my hand with theirs. 



