LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 201 



gain or contract in the granting that presenta- 

 tion, and institution was given thereupon. 



In point of residence, he was as strict with 

 his Clergy as the circumstances of their bene- 

 fices and reasons of their particular cases would 

 bear. And he had so great a dislike to plurali- 

 ties of livings (unless they were small and con- 

 tiguous), in which case there seemed some neces- 

 sity for them to be held in one hand, that he would 

 threaten, when he foresaw they were aimed at, 

 to oppose the dispensation as much as he could. 

 Neither would he, for the same reason, make 

 any titular chaplains, in order to qualify them 

 for holding more benefices than one. 



To a gentleman that begged that favour of 

 him for a friend, he answered : — 



" To speak the truth (says he), I should not 

 be easily prevailed upon to give certificates, 

 even to those that are really my chaplains, if the 

 design thereof be in order to their holding two 

 livings. You know how odious pluralities are 

 now grown, and how much the bishops in par- 

 ticular have been blamed upon that account, 

 with respect to their chaplains. So that I think it 

 concerns all of that order to be wonderfully 

 tender in that point. I must confess, I once, 

 upon great importunities, granted a qualification 

 to an old friend who had a great many children, 

 to hold two contiguous livings. But that is the 



