212 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



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to the Church as the ecclesiastical court shall 

 appoint. Upon these terms you may give him 

 the sacrament, and he may have Christian 

 burial. I pray you to certify me of what you 

 do in this matter. As for a formal absolution, 

 under the seal of the Court, I shall send that, 

 if there be need of it, when I have talked with 

 my chancellor, who at this time is from home. 



I wish Mr happiness both in life and 



death. 



" I am, Sir, your affectionate friend, 



*' Jo. Ebor." 



Commutations for penatices were things which 

 he did not approve of in the general, and yet in 

 some few and particular cases he thought them 

 not only allowable, but expedient, viz. where 

 the interests of religion were as well served by 

 the commutation as by the personal penance ; 

 and where the application of it was made some 

 way to the benefit and service of that church 

 where the penance should have been performed, 

 and where the minister of such church was con- 

 senting and advising to it. For which reason, 

 he thought the Clergy themselves, who gene- 

 rally ivere the best judges of the expediency of 

 commutations, should be consulted on those 

 occasions. Here follows one of his letters to a 

 minister of his diocese upon this subject. 



