Roman training as an excuse (Autobiography). His labours for Cave now became incessant and exhausting, and he asserts that he did almost all the work which was afterwards published in his employer's name. He was ordained deacon by Thomas White (1628–1698) [q. v.], bishop of Peterborough, on 27 Feb. 1686–7, though he was under the canonical age, on account of his extraordinary learning. Nathaniel, lord Crewe, bishop of Durham, made him at the same time many promises of patronage, which were not fully carried out. In June 1687 he was dangerously ill with smallpox, and the degree of M.A. was conferred on him at Cambridge on 5 July by proxy.
He now assisted Thomas Tenison [q. v.] in his controversy with the Romanists, and was the means of bringing ‘one of excellent parts’ back to the communion of the English church. To this period belong his works: 1. ‘A Treatise of the Celibacy of the Clergy, wherein its Rise and Progress are historically considered,’ London, 1688, 4to. 2. ‘Speculum Ecclesiasticum, or an Ecclesiastical Prospective Glass [written by Thomas Ward q. v.], considered,’ London, 1688, 4to. Of this there were two editions within a month, the second with two appendices. 3. ‘A Treatise proving Scripture to be the Rule of Faith, writ by Reginald Peacock, bishop of Chichester, before the Reformation, about the year 1450,’ London, 1688 (with forty pages of learned introduction). 4. ‘The Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome demonstrated in some Observations upon the Life of Ignatius Loyola,’ London, 1688. (This was answered by William Darrell, S.J., in ‘A Vindication of S. Ignatius from Phanaticism,’ 1688.) He won great reputation by these works, which showed remarkable learning for so young a man, and the Romanists made many attempts to convert him. In 1687 he became tutor to the eldest son of John, lord Arundell of Trerice, and in November finally left Cave, whom he considered to have used him very ill. Cave after Wharton's death accused him of ‘unfair and disingenuous dealing;’ but the second edition of his ‘Historia Litteraria’ contains many additions from Wharton's manuscripts. Wharton during 1687 and 1688, besides his original writings, produced several translations from French theological works, and was engaged on investigation of mediæval manuscripts at Cambridge and in the Royal Library at St. James's (for details see D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft).
On 12 Jan. 1688 Wharton first made acquaintance with Archbishop Sancroft, who became his patron and gave him much important literary work. He published by the archbishop's direction ‘The Dogmatical History of the Holy Scriptures’ from Archbishop Ussher's manuscripts, and, by the advice of Tenison, Ridley's ‘Brief Declaration of the Lord's Supper,’ with extracts from Poynet's ‘Diallacticon.’ On 30 June Sancroft gave him a license to preach throughout the whole province of Canterbury, the only such license ever given by that archbishop. On 10 Sept. Sancroft made him his chaplain, and presented him to the rectory of Sundridge, Kent, to which institution was deferred till he was of full age. He resigned this on being appointed to the rectory of Minster, October 1688. He was ordained priest by the archbishop on 9 Nov. 1688, and on 19 Sept. 1689 received the rectory of Chartham. He ‘kept curates’ at his benefices while he ‘busied himself about the public concerns of learning’ (Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, iv. 330). At this time, too, he became closely associated in literary friendship with Dr. Henry Maurice, afterwards Margaret professor at Oxford; Bishop William Lloyd, then of Asaph; Dr. John Battely, archdeacon of Canterbury; and Dr. Matthew Hutton, rector of Aynho (cf. Stubbs, Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum, ed. 1897, p. vi).
He now began his ‘Anglia Sacra,’ a collection of the lives, partly by early writers, partly compiled by himself, of the English archbishops and bishops down to 1540. This, ‘a work of incredible pains,’ was published in two folio volumes, London, 1691. He completed the history of the prelates of the sees whose cathedrals were served by regulars, but a third volume, to deal with those whose cathedrals were served by secular or regular canons, was never finished, and only a part of it, ‘Historia de Episcopis et Decanis Londinensibus necnon de Episcopis et Decanis Assavensibus,’ was published in a small octavo after his death, London, 1695.
At the revolution he alone of his chaplains remained with Sancroft at Lambeth. He took the oaths to the new sovereigns, but was ordered by the archbishop never to mention them in the public prayers [see Sancroft, William]. He did not hesitate to apply for preferment, but was frequently disappointed, and he considered that Burnet prevented Queen Mary from making him one of her chaplains. Other bishops, however, favoured him; he visited many of them, and he preached before the queen at Whitehall. In 1693 he published, under the name of Anthony Harmer, ‘A Specimen of some Errors and Defects in the
