with Henry's rebellious subjects, and grossly abusing him in his publications, Pole complained to the Pope and the French Nuncio, of the barbarous conduct of that Monarch in proclaiming him a traitor and setting a price upon his head: and, though in the same letters he confessed his treasonable designs, he had the duplicity to write to Lord Cromwell, to acquit himself of the charge of disloyalty. This, surely, is highly inconsistent with the character given him by Phillips, who makes his piety and sincerity his chief virtues.

At the close of the year 1538, his Holiness concluding that the bulls of excommunication and deposition, which he had published against Henry, would incline his subjects to break out into another rebellion, despatched the Cardinal a second time in disguise to France and Flanders, upon his former sanctified errand. But this scheme being counterworked by the English Sovereign, Pole met with a cool reception from his Imperial Majesty; upon which he returned by the same road to Avignon, and being directed by his employer to continue in those parts, took the opportunity of making a visit at Carpentras to his beloved friend Cardinal Jacob Sadolet; with whom he spent six months. After subsequently passing some time at Verona with Gilbert Bishop of that see, he was appointed Legate to Viterbo near Rome, in which station he continued till 1542; when the Pope, having summoned the Council of Trent, appointed him with the Cardinals Paris and John Morone to attend there on his behalf. As the Council however could not then assemble, on account of the wars which arose in Germany and other Christian states, Pole returned to Viterbo. Between this place and Rome

he divided his residence, following his studies in great tranquillity till the year 1545, when the Pope issued a second citation for holding the Council at the same place, and re-appointed him, in conjunction with two different cardinals, to his former office. Pole's journey being delayed, upon the pretext that Henry had employed his emissaries to seize him on the road,* his collegues arrived at Trent long before him. At this time, he wrote a Treatise on the nature and end of General Councils:' and at length he repaired to Trent, escorted, wherever danger was apprehended, by a detachment of the papal cavalry. The" solemn banter," as Lord Bolingbroke phrases it, of the Council of Trent being transferred to Bononia, after an opposition from the Imperial embassador, Pole (who had been obliged to retire to Padua, on account of ill health) strenuously defended the Pope's right to remove it, in the year 1546.

Soon after Henry's death, by an extraordinary exertion of zealous audacity, he wrote a letter to the English regency and council, advising them to reconcile the kingdom to the Pope, assuring them that the kingdom would otherwise be exposed to imminent dangers, and adding that his Holiness was willing, in charity to their souls, to send him over to remedy their evils.' He, likewise, addressed a written justification of himself to Edward VI. But the council disregarding both his solicitations and his menaces,

* To account for his just alarms, it is necessary to state, that his mother Margaret Countess of Salisbury, his eldest brother Henry Pole Lord Montagu, the Marquis of Exeter, Sir Edward Nevil, and Sir Nicholas Carew, had been executed in England for high-treason, in conspiring to place the Cardinal upon the throne.

he gave the nation no farther trouble during that short reign.

Paul III. dying in 1549, Pole was twice chosen to succeed him: but he declined both the elections; one, as being too hasty and without deliberation, and the other, because it was done in the middle of the night.* This conduct has been ascribed by Phillips, and others, to delicacy; but it's true cause was his prospect of the crown of England, which he trusted to ascend by gaining the hand of the Princess Mary. Upon his refusal, Julius III. was elected; and the tranquillity of Rome being soon afterward disturbed by the wars on the borders of Italy, Pole retired, with the new Pope's leave, to a monastery of the Benedictines at Maguzano in the territory of Verona.

In this retirement he continued, till the death of Edward VI.; when it was determined by the court of Rome, that he should be sent legate into England, as the fittest instrument to effect the reduction of that kingdom under the papal yoke. But this undertaking required some consideration. The act of attainder, passed against him under Henry VIIL, had been confirmed by Edward, and consequently remained still in force. At length however, having received full satisfaction upon these points, he set out, by the way of Germany, in October 1553: but he had not proceeded far in the Emperor's dominions, when a message arrived from that Prince, to stop his farther progress. This was speedily followed by

*He desired, that his admission might be deferred till the morning, as it was not a work of darkness!' Upon this, the cardinals instantly proceeded to another election, and chose the Cardinal De Monte, who before he left the conclave, bestowed hat upon the servant employed in taking care of his monkey! 2 D

VOL. I.

an express, to the same purpose, from Queen Mary; who, with the view however of keeping him in good humour, sent him the two acts recently passed, for the justification of her mother's marriage, and for restoring all things to the state in which they had been left at her father's death; desiring him likewise to transmit her a list of such persons, as should be made bishops.

The Cardinal, perceiving that the real object in both instances was, to prevent his arriving in England before the Queen's marriage with Philip, felt himself not a little nettled; and in a letter to her Majesty observed, that the check to his journey obviously proceeding from the political views of the emperor, he had conferred with the Imperial confessor about it, and had convinced him of the impropriety of such a measure: with respect to herself, he added, he was 'afraid that carnal pleasures might govern her too much, and that she would thereby fall from the simplicity in Christ, in which she had hitherto lived.' He encouraged her, therefore, to put on a spirit of wisdom and courage, and to trust in God, who had preserved her so long.' With regard to the two acts, he complained that the first made no mention of the Pope's bulls, by the authority of which alone it could be a lawful marriage; and he observed with concern in the other, that the worship of God and the sacraments were to continue as they had been in the last year of Henry's reign, since the English were then in a state of schism, the Pope's interdict still lying upon the nation, under which no one could without sin either administer or receive them.' He confessed, he knew none of either House fit to propose the matter of rejecting the supremacy, which had

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been usurped by her father, and her brother; and, therefore, he thought it best that she herself should go to the parliament (having previously acquainted some few, both of the spirituality and the temporality, with her design) and inform them, that she was afflicted at the schism, and desired a Legate might be sent from the Apostolic See to treat about it.' He proposed also, farther, the reversion of his own attainder.

But the projected marriage meeting with great opposition in England, it was resolved that Pole should be kept at a distance. With this view, another legation was devised for him, to mediate a peace between the empire and France, in which he was unsuccessful. The nuptials between Philip and Mary being at length solemnised, no farther objection was made to his arrival; and, therefore, the Lords Paget and Hastings were sent to Brussels to conduct him to England. On the twentieth of November, 1554, he was met at Dover by the Bishop of Ely, Lord Montagu, and other persons of distinction. At Gravesend, the Bishop of Durham and the Earl of Shrewsbury presented him with the repeal of the act of his attainder, which had passed the day before. A yacht conveyed him thence to Whitehall, where he was treated with the utmost respect by their Majesties; and, after all possible honour paid to him at court, he was conducted to the archiepiscopal palace at Lambeth, which had been sumptuously fitted up for his reception.

On the twenty-seventh, he went to the parliament, and made a long and grave speech, inviting them to a reconciliation with the Apostolic See, whence (he said) he had been sent by the common pastor of Christendom to recover the lost sheep, who had long