250 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



answered, that what thoughts soever they might 

 have of disputing that point with the dean, yet, 

 if they would give him leave to speak his own 

 thoughts of the matter, he believed, if they did> 

 they would be in the wrong ....... *• For," 



says he, "let the patent upon which he was in- 

 stituted have been never so faulty, yet he having 

 been instituted and inducted upon it, he is, to 

 all intents and purposes, the legal Dean of Car- 

 lisle, till he be legally ejected, and another put 

 in by a new grant from the Crown ; so that he 

 could not tell what need the dean had to get his 

 patent new dated, unless it were to prevent the 

 granting a new patent to any other person, while 

 he kept the deanery, which is the only thing 

 that by this means he hath effectually done.''' 



From these letters just now recited, wherein 

 he declares himself upon the nature of the king's 

 supremacy, according to the English constitu- 

 tion (which indeed was the chief reason why 

 any account was given of this affair at Carlisle), 

 a transition is very natural to his political princi- 

 ples and sentiments. Which, together with his 

 more public transactions in the affairs of State 

 and common interests of the Church, shall be 

 considered separately and distinctly in the third 

 part of the work. 



