LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 225 



these chantry rents had been given or restored 

 to the chapter. 



It is likewise true, that the vicars choral did 

 not thoroughly acquiesce in this new settlement 

 by Henry VIII., claiming some right to lease 

 the lands formerly appropriated to their college 

 in their ovi^n names, or at least to join vt^ith the 

 chapter in doing so, and of enjoying the vicarage 

 houses as their freehold. And as some clauses or 

 expressions in the act of foundation, vv^hich vs^as 

 by act of Parliament in the 35th of Henry VIII. 

 did seem to favour their claims, this left room 

 for some dispute, more or less, between the 

 chapter and the vicars ; and that dispute occa- 

 sioned some variety of practice in letting of 

 leases of the old vicars' lands ; till the act of 

 foundation was furtlier explained, and the inten- 

 tion of it ascertained by the statutes of Queen 

 Elizabeth, whose authority to grant those sta- 

 tutes, and by them finally to decide any dis- 

 putes raised upon the wording or design of the 

 act aforesaid, being founded on a better bottom 

 than the bare royal prerogative will deserve in the 

 next place to be considered. 



By an act, 31st Henry VIII., enabling the 

 king to make statutes for his new foundations, 



ought to have this pension ; but found no means of getting it 

 restored to them, it having been so long appropriated to ano- 

 ther use. 



