when he returned to London in December his petition, revised by Jeffreys, was received, and in January 1687 he was reinstated.
In August 1688 Sharp was summoned before the ecclesiastical commission for refusing to read the declaration of indulgence. He argued that though obedience was due to the king in preference to the archbishop, yet that obedience went no further than things licita et honesta. After the Revolution he visited Jeffreys (who had befriended him in the Tower) and ‘freely expostulated with him upon his public actions, and particularly the affairs in the west.’
On 27 Jan. 1689 Sharp preached before the Prince of Orange, and three days later before the convention. On each occasion he prayed for King James, on the ground that the lords had not yet concurred in the abdication vote. The speaker of the House of Commons complained of the second sermon as an affront, and a hot debate took place; but, notwithstanding Evelyn's statement to the contrary (Diary, ii. 291), the preacher received the thanks of the house on 1 Feb. (Life of Sharp; Macaulay, ii. 639). Nor was the court displeased. Sharp preached before Queen Mary on the first Friday in Lent, and ‘was taken into no small favour.’ On 7 Sept. 1689 he was named dean of Canterbury, in succession to Tillotson, and was appointed a commissioner for reform of the liturgy and the ecclesiastical courts. In 1690 he was offered his choice of the sees vacated by the nonjurors, but declined to accept any of them during the life of the deprived prelates, among whom were personal friends. William III was ‘not a little disgusted’ by his refusal; but Tillotson, now primate, who was Sharp's lifelong friend, intervened and induced him to give a promise to accept the see of York when it should fall vacant. A fortnight later Archbishop Thomas Lamplugh [q. v.] died, and on 5 July 1691 Sharp was consecrated by Tillotson. On 5 Oct. he took the tests in the House of Lords. He held the archiepiscopal see longer than any of his predecessors since the Reformation. He made elaborate inquiries into its rights and revenues, and drew up a manuscript account in four folios, which he bequeathed to his successors. It included the lives and acts of the archbishops from Paulinus to Lamplugh. Le Neve and Willis benefited by his labours. In 1693 he visited and regulated the chapter of Southwell, which had fallen into some disorder. When, in 1711, a great part of York minster was burnt, he raised almost a third of the sum necessary for the repairs. In dealing with his clergy he was firm but considerate. He consistently refused to be influenced in the distribution of his patronage by political motives, and declined to interfere in the conduct of parliamentary elections, even when applied to by Lady Russell and the Duke of Leeds. He attended York minster thrice a week, and himself preached about once a fortnight. He would not allow in the pulpit ‘railing at dissenters,’ and approved useful rather than showy preaching. He discouraged in his diocese the societies ‘for the reformation of manners’ which began to spring up about 1697, thinking their methods of doubtful legality. He interested himself in the condition of the distressed Scottish episcopal clergy both under William and Anne. He was often applied to in cases of conscience, and made converts among both nonjurors and dissenters, including William Higden [q. v.] and Robert Nelson [q. v.], Bishop Bull's biographer. Baxter was intimate with him, and attended not only his sermons but his sacraments (Silvester, Life, p. 437).
With politics, when not affecting the church, Sharp rarely concerned himself. In April 1694 he took charge successfully, for Stillingfleet, of a bill dealing with small tithes. In 1692 he opposed the bill for annual parliaments as prejudicial to the prerogative. He was opposed to bills of attainder, and voted against that in the case of Sir John Fenwick (1645?–1697) [q. v.], notwithstanding an interview with the king at Kensington on 8 Dec. 1696. He signed the ‘association’ to protect William's life, but caused a definition of the word ‘revenging’ to be entered on the journals of the House of Lords. At the coronation of Anne, on 23 April 1702, Sharp delivered a short and impressive discourse (Strickland, Queens of England, viii. 150). According to the Duchess of Marlborough, he was selected as ‘being a warm and zealous man for the church, and reckoned a tory’ (Account of her Conduct, p. 134). He was appointed the queen's almoner, and was sworn of the privy council. He was also appointed a commissioner for the Scottish union, but took no part in the proceedings. Under Anne, Sharp occupied a very important position, which he never abused. In the words of his biographer, ‘in church matters he was her principal guide, in matters of state her confident’ (sic). In one of their numerous private conferences (December 1706), Sharp noted in his diary that Anne said ‘I should be her confessor, and she would be mine.’ Although they were in general agreement, the archbishop occasionally gave votes against the queen's wishes. As her ecclesiastical adviser, he induced her to give back the
