monarch, were addressed, likewise, to his intellectual qualities. Perceiving the inclination which he betrayed for the pleasures calculated to allure a youth of eighteen, the crafty churchman advised the king to follow the bent of his desires, and to leave the management of state affairs to his councillors, with whom he promised to make arrangements, by which propositions might be reported when they had been digested by older heads, and all the trouble of discussion should have been concluded. At the same time that Wolsey proffered this suggestion, he counselled the king to pursue those studies to which his attention had been directed from his childhood; and especially to continue a diligent perusal of the works of Aquinas, for whose doctrines Henry entertained a lively partiality. With discourses of this nature, Wolsey mingled instructions on the art of government, and disquisitions on important subjects of every nature: so that while Henry regarded him with pleasure as the promoter of his enjoyments, he could not fail to view him with admiration as a politician, and with reverence as a divine. It was, however, no easy task for a man arrived at his period of life, to combine his habits with the ideas and pursuits of a young prince not half his age, who might prefer the society of so many gay and gallant courtiers, all emulously seeking his favour. But Wolsey, with singular address, instead of driving his youthful rivals from the presence of the king, endeavoured to conciliate them by those attractions of wit and eloquence which he possessed in an eminent degree. It is natural for the inexperience of youth to be flattered by every tribute of regard paid to their imagined consequence by those who have outlived the follies, without losing the elasticity, of that fickle age. From those among the male favourites of Henry, who were most endeared to the king by their merits and accomplishments, Wolsey playfully demanded a compact of mutual fidelity and good offices. With the highly-born ladies by whom the court revels were shared and adorned, he was equally solicitous of favour. "Whosoever of them was great, to her he was familiar, and gave her gifts."* He was courteous and liberal to all; he sported, he jested, he sang, he even danced; forgetting, or perhaps holding in lower account, the decorum proper to his sacred habit.

Strype's Eccl. Memorials, vol. i. p. 189.

Exertions, so well directed, soon obtained for him such influence at the court, as had not been enjoyed by any minister in the preceding reign. Those who had hitherto employed him as an agent, now sued to him as a superior. The two contending parties in the council quailed before his ascendancy. The Earl of Surrey, who had hitherto seen in him only the humble but useful ally of Fox, now began to fear him as a rival. Fox, who had endeavoured to accelerate his rise in the hope of his aid to resist the encroachments of Surrey, perceived that he had fostered a man so gifted by nature, and so energetic from habit, that he could never be chased from the road to preferment, after he had once entered upon the right track. Such of the nobility and courtiers as had suits to prefer, or were anxious to recommend themselves to the notice of the king, found it expedient to ensure a welcome through the mediation of Wolsey. The court had been little attended during the reign of Henry the Seventh; divisions, resulting from the civil wars, had prevented many of the nobles from presenting themselves to the Lancastrian monarch; poverty had detained some, and the absence of all attraction in an economical and gloomy court, had kept many within their remote but more hospitable mansions. Now the scene was changed, and suitors, long withheld from these various motives, thronged around the king and Wolsey. So plentiful, as Cavendish tells us, were the presents proffered to Wolsey, in order to procure his good offices, that "he wanted nothing, either to please his fantasy, or to enrich his coffers, fortune so smiled upon him; but to what end she brought him, you shall hear."* Meanwhile honours were showered upon him by the king, with a lavish hand; he was presented to several livings of value, in addition to those which he already enjoyed; he was appointed Registrar of the Order of the Garter, and was not 1510. long afterwards intrusted with an office still more active and important, to keep him about the person of the king.

Scarcely was Henry the Eighth seated on the throne, than inducements were held out to him to enter into hostilities against France; and his vanity rendered such propositions too acceptable to be rejected. It would have required, indeed, but little political skill to have preserved the country in that * Cavendish, p. 82.

crificed the more important conquest, resulted from the folly of Henry in acceding to the wishes of Maximilian, whose dominions, contiguous to Artois, were frequently annoyed by incursions of the French from Therouenne. Tournay was, therefore, preferred, and was deemed worthy of an English garrison, under the command of Sir Edward Poynings; Wolsey was also made Bishop of Tournay; and he received from the inhabitants, as their pastor, an oath of allegiance to the King of England. Arrangements for its security having been completed, Henry, congratulating himself on having subdued a place famed in history for its resistance to Julius Cæsar, took advantage of his new conquest to hold a solemn feast, which was attended by the Emperor Maximilian, the Duchess of Savoy, and the young Prince of Castile, afterwards Charles the Fifth. These festivities were succeeded by other diversions at Lisle; after which Henry, swelling with the pride of his showy but unprofitable honours, returned to England, followed by the gay and the ambitious, the frivolous and the intriguing throng Oct. of courtiers, who had attend1513. ed his expedition, or flocked to its successful and useless

results.

Some time before Wolsey derived the full benefit of his consecration to the Bishoprick of Tournay,* the inhabitants of that city, attached to their former diocesan, and disliking the dominion of a foreigner, resisted the spiritual jurisdiction of Doctor Sampson, whom Wolsey had left in Tournay as his vicargeneral; but he finally triumphed over his episcopal adversary, and, by his diligent attention to the business of the town, obtained the chief management of its affairs, and became a popular ruler. This see afforded him considerable revenues, and its citizens treated him almost as a prince, addressing their dispatches "To my Lord Cardinal's grace, and the privy council." But even higher dignities were reserved for Wolsey on his return to England. The see of Lincoln, vacant on the death of Doctor Smith, became the next step in his ascent to the height which he was destined to attain of wealth and power. This rapid succession of honours and accumulation of riches were insufficient to satisfy the grasping desires of one, who, while he distributed freely, coveted largely the good

Strype's Eccl. Memorials, vol. i. p. 172. † Ibid.

things of our worldly condition.Scarcely was the ceremony of his consecration over, before he disgraced his holy office by a successful attempt to possess himself of goods belonging to his predecessor; and Cavendish, repressing, from a sense of justice, his partiality for Wolsey, confesses that he had, at various times, seen the stolen furniture in the house of his master. Tournay and Lincoln were both conferred upon him in the same year; but a yet higher dig- Mar. 26, nity awaited his accept- 1514. ance: for within a month the archbishopric of York being vacant, he was endowed with the temporalities of that see in August, and was actually translated to it in November. This sudden elevation to the second dignity of the Anglican church, Wolsey owed, no doubt, in part, to one of those accidents which occur in the life of every prosperous individual. Bambridge, the late prelate, was a man in the vigour of life, who held the station of ambassador at the court of Rome, in conformity with the custom then prevalent of employing churchmen in the missions, now more suitably, as well as advantageously, assigned to the laity. The death of Bambridge, which happened suddenly, was attributed to various causes, but it was undoubtedly the effect of poison, administered by some unknown hand, and imputed by common report to his steward, whom he had struck in a fit of passion. A more authentic account unhappily affixes the crime upon Giglis, bishop of Worcester, an Italian, who succeeded Archbishop Bambridge as ambassador at the court of Rome; and the pope, unwilling to throw discredit upon the church, is said to have concealed the dark deed, and to have screened it from punishment.*

Elated by the rapid progress of his fortunes, Wolsey now displayed the arrogance of his character, without fear or scruple. Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and at this time lord chancellor, was the first to feel the encroachments by which his brother of York sought to enhance his own dignity, at the expense of the rights of others. It had been the custom, before the elevation of Wolsey, for the cross of Canterbury, borne before the archbishop, on solemn occasions, to take precedence of the cross of York, except within the diocese of York. Great importance

Ellis's Original Letters, vol. i., p. 100,

was attached to this distinction, and in the reign of Edward the Third, a parliament being summoned at York, attendance was refused by the Archbishop of Canterbury upon the plea that the metropolitan of England should not be constrained to lower the emblem of his dignity before the ensign of his brother archprelate.* In defiance of the established usage, Wolsey ordered his cross to be erected, not only within the precincts of Warham's jurisdiction, but even in his presence; nor would he, on the remonstrances of the primate, desist from this act of intrusion. To possess, however, as of right, and not merely by usurpation, and to exercise superiority in all points of worldly greatness, was most agreeable to a man so constituted as the new archbishop, and

he resolved to sue for the rank of cardinal, a promotion which he trusted might be followed by the yet higher honours of a legatine commission. Leo the Tenth, who had succeeded Julius the Second in the pontifical chair, was disposed, both from inclination and policy, to bestow the desired honour upon the favourite of a powerful monarch, a dignitary who was likely to reflect credit upon the church. The mode which Leo adopted of forwarding to Wolsey the insignia of his new honours was not, however, approved by the cardinal elect; and being apprised that the "hat" was on the road to England, in the charge of a common messenger, or, according to the language of the times, "in a varlet's budget," Wolsey deemed it essential to his dignity that a more honourable means of conveyance should be provided. Previous to the arrival of the papal messenger in England, he was replenished, by the command of Wolsey, with a variety of costly decorations and habiliments, suitable to the importance of his burden. The hat was met on Blackheath by a great number of the clergy, and of gentlemen, and was then conducted to London with great triumph. Meanwhile preparations were made for its reception in Westminster Abbey, where all the bishops and abbots of London and its vicinity were assembled in their richest copes and mitres, in order to celebrate the confirmation of this new dignity to the Cardinal. So solemn was this ceremony, that Cavendish, who was present, declares that he had never witnessed a

See note in Singer's edition of Cavendish, p. 90.

more imposing scene, except at "the coronation of some mighty prince or bishop." Nor did the honours of the hat terminate here in all public processions, it preceded the Cardinal wherever he went; when he performed mass in the king's chapel, this emblem of his ecclesiastical degree was placed upon the altar, appearing before the people as an idol, set up by the pride of Wolsey to be worshipped. In this display of his newly-acquired honours, Wolsey had a deeper aim than the mere ostentatious and childish exhibition ;the age was one of ceremony and of pomp; and by a costly exterior, always most admired among a people the least prone to intellectual culture, Wolsey, perhaps, thought to obliterate the remembrance of his obscure origin and sudden rise to power. Unhappily for him the event proved otherwise, and the magnificence of the Cardinal drew upon him the bitterness of popular sarcasm, the secret jealousy of the nobility, and the dislike of the clergy.

Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, had been regarded hitherto as one of the principal persons about the throne, and as one of the most esteemed among the confidential advisers of the King. Austere and averse to new measures, the Primate beheld with chagrin the ascendency of Wolsey, whose conduct towards him was marked by a haughty assumption of superiority. Warham had long held the high office of Chancellor, and had enjoyed much of the late king's confidence. Averse, therefore, in all probability, to play a second part, but alleging his age and infirmities as a plea for his retirement, he resigned the seals, which were immediately offered to Wolsey. The conduct of the Cardinal on this occasion has been variously stated; and even Cavendish reports him to have driven Warham from office by his intrigues. But this statement is incorrect; the resignation of Warham was voluntary, and even his own friends appear to have imputed no blame to his rival and successor. Ammonius, the friend of Erasmus, in writing to that celebrated man, who was warmly attached to Warham, expresses himself thus: "Your Archbishop, with the King's good leave, has laid down his post, which that of York, with much importunity, has accepted of, and behaves most beautifully." The change in this important station was soon fol

*Cavendish, p. 92.

† Cavendish, by Singer. Note, p. 93.

lowed by the temporary retirement of several of the most favoured courtiers, and the resignation of some of the most experienced ministers. The Duke of Norfolk begged permission of the King to withdraw to his country residence; for the embarrassed state of the finances, arising from the lavish expenditure of the Monarch, rendered it difficult for this able statesman and dexterous courtier to play his part, and preserve his reputation, in both characters. Yet the Duke, divided as he was between fear of offending his sovereign, and the risk of ruining the country, resigned not his situation until 1522, when he was succeeded by his son, the Earl of Surrey. The Duke of Suffolk, unjustly incensed against Wolsey for refusing to cancel his debt to the King, absented himself for some time from court, but was soon recalled to the presence of Henry, whose favour he continued to enjoy long after the more brilliant prospects of the Cardinal had been darkened by reverses. Fox, the early patron of Wolsey, quitted the court, more in sorrow at his own loss of power, than in anger towards him whose exaltation he had hastened. The advice of the Bishop to Henry, that he should beware how he allowed the servant to be greater than the master, "drew forth a reply which was amply verified in this reign-that the servants of the King should obey, and not command."

CHAPTER SECOND.

Preferments, Revenues and Household Establishment of Wolsey.-His sentiments towards Francis the First.

Wolsey as a Judge, as an administrator of the Church Laws.-Mission of Wolsey to France, and its consequences. [1516 to 1521.]

WOLSEY was now Cardinal de Santa Cecilia, Archbishop of York, 1516. and Chancellor of England. His aspiring mind was not satisfied even with these distinctions; and resolving to obtain the supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs relating to this country, he sought, and procured a bull, investing him with legatine authority. This commission procured to the Cardinal a vast accession both of wealth and influence; and it appeared scarcely possible that he could exercise the authority thus intrusted to him, in the three great situations which he filled, without peril to himself, and encroachment upon the dignity of the King,

To support the style suitable to his rank in the church and the state, the revenues of Wolsey were necessarily the object of his solicitude; and it is melancholy to see that in a mind naturally liberal, ambition gave birth to avarice, and avarice engendered laxity of principle. This powerful statesman, who should have been incorruptible, scrupled not to receive from Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Germany, the annual bribe of three thousand pounds Flemish; and from Francis the First, twelve thousand livres, also paid yearly, in order to secure the interest of the Cardinal in behalf of those Princes. Nor did he blush to stipulate with the secretary of the Duke of Milan, that, upon the promise of an inviolable peace between Henry the Eighth and that Potentate, an annuity of ten thousand ducats should be transmitted to enrich the coffers of Wolsey, during the life of the Duke. In addition to these acts of baseness, it is recorded, to his further disgrace, that he was accessible to the influence of presents, in the exercise of his legatine office; and that he degra ded himself by extortions to a considerable extent, in that capacity. mented by these resources, the income which Wolsey enjoyed would appear ample, even if estimated according to the value of money in the present day, when a pound is equivalent to a crown only of the coin of Henry the Eighth. But Wolsey had still other means of obtaining wealth. Besides the scandalous emoluments already recited, he derived profits of a less reprehensible nature, from the bishoprics of Bath, Worcester, and Hereford, which he held in these sees belonged, and who preferred farm for the foreign dignitaries to whom receiving from them a regular sum to an uncertain and precarious collection of their full revenues by agents. This injurious system had been too long practised to reflect upon the conduct of Wolsey in lending his countenance to it; it had even been encouraged by Henry the Seventh, who, with great professions for the weal of the church, had chosen thus to risk its best interests, by rewarding foreigners, sent on legations or other business, with benefices upon which they could not reside; a mode of payment more consonant to the inclina

Aug

Anderson's History of Commerce, vol. i. p. 30. See, in Rymer's Federa, vol. xii. p. 525, a promissory obligation to this effect, from the secretary of the Duke of Milan.

See Fiddes's Life of Wolsey, p. 107.