382 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



false reasoning, into his mouth ; who thought 

 quite the reverse of what this man would have 

 him speak, as appears in all his writings in the 

 Romish controversy, viz. That the Roman reli- 

 gion, as it is now ■professed, was not the a7icient reli- 

 gion of this counti-y, nor the Prqtestant religion a 

 new one, either here or in foreign kingdoms, but 

 the old 07ie, and the true one, such as it was before 

 it was corrupted by the innovations and superstitions 

 of Rome. However, it helped to serve the 

 writer's end, to charge this inconsistency upon 

 him. And it is manifest, from another passage 

 in the preface to the same book (which shall be 

 considered in its proper place), that the author 

 of it had a prejudice against him. The book 

 was extremely scarce, and rarely any copies of 

 it to be met with here. It was conveyed from 

 Brussels, where it was printed, first into Hol- 

 land ; and there Dr. Cockburn, who gave him 

 the first account of it, obtained the perusal of 

 it with great difficulty. And afterwards a few 

 of the impression were transmitted into Eng- 

 land. 



The author of Dr. Radcliffe's Life*, whoever 

 he was, either knew as little of the Archbishop 

 as the French writer, or was as much disposed 

 to invent, when he fathered upon him a Letter to 



* Published after the Archbishop's death, in 1716, and 

 printed by Curll. 



