however, was far advanced in years, when thus elevated to the Papacy; and the emperor told Wolsey's agent, that Adrian was also sickly; adding that the English cardinal should certainly have his support, on the next opportunity. Very shortly after this the emperor visited England, where he gratified the king by witnessing his pomp; and the cardinal, by increasing his pension. An English army was, in consequence, embarked, to ravage the French coasts.

The next year Wolsey received a message from the duke of Bourbon, grand constable of France, proposing to betray his sovereign and his country, into Henry's power; and with this traitor the king of England entered into a secret league. Hence followed another unjustifiable invasion of France. And though the Papal throne became once more vacant, and Wolsey found himself once more deceived by the emperor's promises; still the expectation of gaining by Bourbon's active hostility to Francis, kept Henry at war with the latter. Then came the battle

1525.

of Pavia, in which the imperial army made Feb. the French king a prisoner. And that splendid victory so raised the emperor's pride, that, dropping the flattering tone which he had hitherto constrained himself to use in his communications with the cardinal, Charles broke out into haughty remarks, before the English ambassadors, on Wolsey's presumption and treachery. He was, at the same time, requesting king Henry to let him off from his engagement to the princess Mary; on the plea, that his subjects were urgent that he should have an heir, and objected to his waiting for her arrival at years of maturity. To this request the king assented. But Wolsey took his revenge on the emperor, by preventing the letter of assent from reaching his court for several months; and finally, by persuading his master to make a separate peace with France, as soon as he had ascertained

Aug. 30.

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135

the willingness of the French king's mother to grant him the advantageous terms already mentioned *.

Abroad, this changing of sides, and the clandestine manner in which the steps preparatory to these changes were usually transacted, had the effect of disposing foreigners to regard an English ambassador as a person on whose words no dependence could be placed. At home, the cardinal had become the rival of his sovereign in pomp and power. It was soon after his elevation to the archbishopric of York, that king Henry gave him the chancellorship of England; and he next allowed Pope Leo X. to name the cardinal his legate; an office which was deemed by the Papal court to give such extraordinary powers to the holder, as the English laws had forbidden any one to attempt exercising within the king's dominions.

Thus was Wolsey avowedly at the head both of the Church and of the law; and, at the same time, the chief minister of state. The allowed emoluments, belonging to these important posts, were far greater then, in proportion to prices, than now; and we have seen how the cardinal contrived to draw a large income, besides, from his sovereign's foreign allies. But not satisfied with the wealth, thus flowing into his coffers, he held the rich abbey of St. Albans, and the bishopric of Durham first, and afterwards of Winchester, with the see of York; whilst the foreigners, to whom the bishoprics of Hereford and Worcester had been given, were fain to let him farm their revenues. Yet Wolsey was not avaricious. It was his love of splendour which kept him ever needy; and as his goods increased, so they increased who ate them; leaving the owner little thereof, save the beholding of them with his eyes †. His household comprised not fewer than 500 persons; and knights and barons were content to be among his upper ser

vants.

Gold and silver plate, of which he had none by inheritance, was displayed in the greatest profusion on his table and sideboard. In his daily progress to Westminster-hall, in term-time, he rode on a mule; because it was customary for dignified ecclesiastics to imitate our Lord in this; of whom they had heard, that he entered Jerusalem sitting upon the foal of an ass*. But the GOD of this world must indeed have blinded the mind of this poor sinner, if he never reflected how wide was the contrast between every other circumstance of his procession, and that of the meek Jesus. For Wolsey rode dressed in scarlet satin, and had golden shoes; and even his mule had trappings of crimson velvet, with a gilded saddle and stirrups. His chancellor's seals were borne before him by one nobleman; and his cardinal's hat, of scarlet, by another, each bareheaded. Next rode two priests, selected for their tall stature, each bearing a silver cross; and after them two laymen, carrying massy silver pillars. They were followed by his mace-bearer, and by footmen with gilt pole-axes; whilst a gaudily-dressed train of attendants brought up the rear. On the Lord's-day it was the general custom of this professed chief in the church of Christ, to resort in the same proud array to Greenwich, or wherever else the court might be, if near London; and, after feasting with the courtiers, to consult with the king on business of state, and then return, in like manner, to his palace called York-house, afterwards Whitehall. He expected that this splendour would make him revered by the gazing crowd; but it only taught interested observers that to flatter his pride, would be the most likely way of bending him to their will. Hence the emperor, in writing to Wolsey, used to call him "my good and hearty friend;" and to sign himself " your son." Whilst the university of Oxford repeatedly

Matt. xxi. 5.

† 1 Cor. iv. 4.

employed the words "your majesty," in addressing the cardinal; and this when the king himself was, as yet, generally addressed as "your Grace" only, which heralds hold to be an inferior designation. In like manner his scarlet hat, the ensign of a cardinal's rank, was made much more of than his sovereign's crown. The Pope sent it to England in a servant's baggage. But Wolsey had the man detained, as soon as he landed, till a sumptuous dress could be provided for him; and then a number of prelates and gentlemen, desirous to gratify the cardinal, went in procession, as far as Blackheath, to escort the hat and its bearer into London. It was next placed on a sideboard, in Wolsey's palace, with tapers burning round it; and nobles of the highest rank came, and made their obeisance before it and the chair on which his cardinal's robes were laid. Nor was this enough; when the cardinal officiated in the king's chapel, his hat was put upon the altar; as though it were the idol to which the bowing priests, and people, offered adoration.

If, however, the cardinal thus gave himself up, body and soul, to the pursuit of " the pomps and vanities of this wicked world," there was one fashion of that age in which he could not take the lead without benefiting his country; and this was the encouraging a learned education. His predecessor in the see of Lincoln, Bishop Smith, had founded Brazennose College. His early patron Fox, bishop of Winchester, had founded Corpus-Christi College, in Oxford. The duke of Buckingham had begun the foundation of Magdalene College, in Cambridge. Henry VIII. was continuing the structure of King'sCollege Chapel; and the venerable Lady Margaret, the king's grand-mother, had made it her last care to complete the appropriation of a large part of her hereditary estates, to founding a professorship of divinity in each university, and two colleges in Cambridge, Christ's and St. John's. But Wolsey re

solved to out-do them all; by founding seven professorships in Oxford; and by building and endowing a college there on a much larger scale than any of the older foundations*, and another college at Ipswich, his native town.

The lavish manner in which the cardinal indulged his lust for luxury and splendour, would not, however, allow him to be generous except at the cost of others. So he got authority from the pope to enquire into the abuses declared to be prevalent in monasteries, and to dismiss the monks, where he should find them addicted to disorderly living, provided their estates were small. And upon this plea he broke up not fewer than twenty of the lesser monasteries, turned out their inmates, and took possession of the property to found his colleges withal. That these monks might well deserve to be deprived of their revenues is too probable. But if they were given over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not fitting †, they might justly have exclaimed to the cardinal, thou art inexcusable man, who judgest. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest, doest the same things. So it was that the cardinal, who charged these monks with uncleanness, had not only heaped benefices upon one of his base-born sons, till he drew an income from almost every diocese in England, but had actually deputed another to sit as judge for him, in the ecclesiastical court which was to condemn them; and, after the manner of those, whose glory is in their shame §, he had obtained a grant from the king, licensing these illegitimate children to use armorial bearings, allusive to their disgraceful relationship to him.

Such were the occupations and devices, which

*He gave it the name of Cardinal's College; but being remodelled on a new foundation, it received the name of Christ-Church.

† Rom. i. 28.

Id. ii. 1.

§ Phil. iii. 19.