230 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



in making and giving statutes to the cathedral 

 and collegiate churches. 



Thus much seemed necessary to say to vindi- 

 cate him from some aspersions on this account, 

 and from the charge of oppression or arbitrary 

 doings, which the vicars, by carrying their com- 

 plaints of late years into Westminster Hall, seemed 

 to throw upon him ; though it was some justifi- 

 cation of him, that they could not obtain any 

 hearing of their complaint there, but were re- 

 mitted to their proper and local visitor, who 

 hath not hitherto made any alteration, upon their 

 remonstrance, in the forementioned injunctions 

 given by Archbishop Sharp. 



He was, in other respects, no ordinary bene- 

 factor to this church, as will appear from the 

 two following singular instances. 



I. King Edward VI. had settled a pension m 

 perpetwmi, for the support of a divinity lecturer, 

 or afternoon preacher at Southwell ; which pen- 

 sion had been regularly paid till the year 1641, 

 but from thenceforward had been dropped. It 

 is commonly thought difficult enough to obtain 

 the revival of such a grant as this (after so many 

 years intermission of payment), and the esta- 

 blishment of it for the future ; how much more 

 so to recover arrears ? Yet he had a scheme 

 that he thought would bear, and having asked 

 as yet no favour of the crown (this was in 1692), 



