SHARP, JAMES, Archbishop of St. Andrews, the son of William Sharp, sheriff clerk of Banffshire, and was born in the castle of Banff, May, 1618. Educated for the church at the university of Aberdeen, where be attained distinction as a student, where he is said on the authority of a tract, entitled A Tree and Impartial Account of the Life of the Most Reverend Father in God, Dr. James Sharp. Archbishop of St. Andrews,. published in 1719) to have protested against the " Solemn League and Covenant;" he afterward visited England, and became acquainted with several eminent English divines, such as Hammond, Sanderson, and Taylor. Returning to Scotland. lie was appointed a professor of philosophy at St. Andrews, through the influence of the earl. of Rothes, and soon after minister of the parish of drail. an office which he held during . the ascendency of Cromwell. In Aug., 1651, when Monk was reducing Scotland to obedience, lie was carrliAl off, along with several other ministers, to England. Sharp quickly regained his liberty, and he possessed, for some years, the confidence of the more moderate party in' the church. In 1656 he was chosen by them to plead their cause in London before the protector against the rev. James Guthrie, a leader of the extreme section (the protestors or remonstrators), which lie did with so much dexterity that Cromwell is reported to have said: "That gentleman, alter the Scotch way, oughti to be termed Sharp of that ilk." When the restoration was on the eve of happening, Sharp was appointed by the moderate party to act as its representative in the negotia tions opened up with Monk and the king. This is the crucial period of his career, and On the view take of his motives depends our whole estimate of his character. Was he sincere, or did he mein to betray the church to which he owed allegiance? Presby terian writers are nearly unanimous in affirming his perfidy, although the evidence is doubtful. Among the first things the Scottish parliament that net Jan. 1, 1661,
did, was to repeal or rescind every act passed since 1638, in consequence of which Episcopacy remained the church of Scotland, as " settled by law"—a dishonorable eva sion of a promise made by Charles in a letter written 'to the presbytery of Edinburgh in Aug., 1660. Soon after, at a council held in Whitehall, Sharp was nominated' archbishop of St. Andrews, and having gone up to London, he was there formally con Secrated by the bishop of London and three other prelates. His government of the Scottish church was tyrannical and oppressive; and iu consequence lie became an object of hatred to most of his When one =MitoticII, a conventicle preacher, fired a pistol at him in the streets of Edinburgh, the populace allowed-the intending assassin to walk quietly off, without making a single effort to arrest him. Finally Sharp was assassinated on Magus moor, near St. Andrews, May 3, 1679, by a band of fanatical covenanters. In of Sharp, the utmost that can be said is that he was simply au ambitious ecclesiastic (of plausible and courtly manners), who had no belief ft the "divine right" of presbytery, and who thought that if England were resolved to 3 main Episcopalian, it would be very much better if Scotland were to adopt the same farm of church government, and that if there must be an archbishop of St. Andrews, there was no reason why lie should not be the person. This theory is certainly a more rober one than the usual melodramatic covenanting view, winch makes 111111 out to be "a conscious villain," who persecuted his old friends the more fiercely that lie knew they were in the right and he in the wrong.