LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 215 



and legal privileges, which it was neither in his 

 power to abridge them of, nor in his inclination 

 to do it in the least article. He made enquiries 

 of all his ecclesiastical officers, and of their 

 rules of practice in all the several branches of 

 their business ; putting interrogatories concern- 

 ing the orders and customs of the spiritual 

 courts to the several judges, advocates, proc- 

 tors, and acting registers in them ; and upon 

 their particular and distinct answers made, he 

 regulated the practice of the courts, and de- 

 clared and enjoined certain rules and orders to 

 be observed by all the rural deans and surro- 

 gates acting by any authority from the eccle- 

 siastical judges ; and he reformed, at the same 

 time, the table of fees in his consistory. 



His " Articles of Enquiry ,' at the visitation of 

 these courts, being drawn up by himself, in 

 1699, (though the regulation was not completed 

 till 1705, and perhaps with good judgment,) are 

 inserted at length in the appendix*. 



He endeavoured, as often as occasion was 

 given, to prevent or remove the restraints that 

 were put upon church discipline by the tempo- 

 ral courts, and to clear up those difficulties ift 

 the exercise of it which were occasioned by the 

 statute laws, especially the act of toleration; of 



* App. L No. V. 



