XXVII. right of conquest the disposal of the office, appointed Wolsey CHAP. to it, and put him in immediate possession of the temporalities. This step was directly at variance with the canons of the church, and at another time would have been resented by the supreme Pontiff as a sacrilegious usurpation. Wolsey became Bishop de facto, but his title to the see was afterwards questioned, and was made the subject of long and intricate negotiations. made On his return to England he was legitimately placed in Wolsey the episcopal order, by being elected and consecrated Bishop Bishop of of Lincoln. He is reproached for having been guilty of Lincoln. great rapacity in seizing the goods which had belonged to his predecessor, Bishop Smith; and his gentleman usher is obliged to admit that he had frequently seen with shame some of the stolen furniture of the late Bishop in the house of his master. He bishop of York, &c. A few months after, Bambridge, Archbishop of York, Archdying, Wolsey was elevated to this archiepiscopal see. was farther allowed to unite with York-first the see of Durham, and next that of Winchester. He farmed besides, on very advantageous terms, the Bishoprics of Bath, Worcester and Hereford, filled by foreigners who gladly compounded for the indulgence of residing abroad by yielding up to him a large share of their English incomes. The rich Abbey of St. Alban's, and many other church preferments, he held in commendam. There was only one individual in the kingdom on whom he now looked with envy, Warham, who, as Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor, had precedence of him both ecclesiastically and civilly; but though he could not aim at the primacy during the life of his rival, he resolved that he himself should be the first subject under the King in rank as well as in power. Pope Julius II., styled the "Incendiary of Christendom," being dead, he was succeeded by the celebrated Leo X., who closely resembled Wolsey in the love of pleasure and love of literature, and was desirous of cultivating the friendship of Cardinal and Legate à latere. XXVII. CHAP. England against the ambition of France. One of his first acts was to confer a Cardinal's hat on the favourite of Henry, with a Bull creating him Legate à latere over the whole kingdom of England, and enabling him to call convocations, and to exercise supreme ecclesiastical authority. The Pope's messenger, conveying these emblems of spiritual precedence and authority, was met on Blackheath by "a great assembly of prelates, and lusty gallant gentlemen, and from them conducted through London with great triumph." The new Cardinal and Legate was confirmed in his dignity in Westminster Abbey by a numerous band of Bishops and Abbots, in rich mitres, copes, and other costly ornaments, "which," says Cavendish, " was done in so solemn a wise as I have not seen the like, unless it had been at the coronation of a mighty prince or king." Measures to disgust Lord Warham. He was now armed with effectual means of annoying and mortifying Warham. As Cardinal he took place of him†, Chancellor and as Legate he was entitled to interfere with his jurisdiction within the province of Canterbury. "Wherefore remembering as well the taunts and checks before sustained of Canterbury which he intended to redress, and having respect to the advancement of worldly honour, he found the means with the King that he was made Chancellor, and Canterbury thereof dismissed."+ WOLSEY, Chancellor. The transfer of the Great Seal as we have seen in the life of Lord Chancellor Warham, took place on the 22d of December, 1515. § The affair was conducted with exterior * Cavendish, 91. †This point was settled by the Pope in the case of Cardinal Kemp, Archbishop of York, and authors are mistaken who represent the precedence now assumed by Wolsey an usurpation dictated by his arrogance. Cavendish, 93. The reader may be amused with a translation of the Latin entry in the Close Roll upon the occasion "Be it remembered that on Sunday, the 22d of December, in the seventh year of the reign of Henry VIII., about the hour of one in the afternoon, in a certain high and small room in the King's palace at Westminster, near the Parliament Chamber, the most reverend Father in Christ, William Archbishop of Canterbury, then Chancellor of England, the King's Great Seal in the custody of the said Chancellor then being inclosed in a certain bag of white leather, and five times sealed with the signet of the said Archbishop, into the hands of our said lord the King surrendered and delivered up in the presence of the most reverend Father in Christ, Thomas, by divine compassion Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church by the title "Sancti 1 Miseracione divinâ. decency, as if there had been a voluntary resignation on the one side and a reluctant acceptance on the other. CHAP. XXVII. Quære, Warham was reluc tant to take Great Seal? A contemporary letter of Sir Thomas More might lead to the belief that Warham was really eager to retire, and Wolsey Whether afraid of farther promotion. Writing to Ammonius, he says, resigned "The Archbishop of Canterbury hath at length resigned the voluntarily, and Wolsey office of Chancellor, which burthen as you know he had strenuously endeavoured to lay down for some years; and the long wished-for retreat being now obtained, he enjoys a most pleasant recess in his studies, with the agreeable reflection of having acquitted himself honourably in that high station. The Cardinal of York, by the King's orders, succeeds him." Ammonius, writing to Erasmus, says in the same strain, "Your Archbishop, with the King's good leave, has laid down his post, which that of York, after much importunity, has accepted of, and behaves most beautifully." Nay, Warham himself, in a letter to the same correspondent, says, he lesired to give up this magistracy "quem Eboracensis Episcopus impendio rogatus suscepit.' But the testimony of Cavendish, and the internal evidence on the other side, greatly preponderate. Warham, although like other Chancellors resolved to cling to office as long as possible, may from time to time have expressed a wish to be rid of it, and when the crisis actually came, the parties themselves and their friends deemed it best to avoid, as much as pos Ariaci in Termis," Archbishop of York, Primate of England, and Legate of the Apostolic See, of Charles Duke of Suffolk, and of William Throgmorton, prohonotary of the Chancery of our Lord the King. And our said Lord the King, the said seal in the said bag so inclosed, so surrendered and delivered up by the said Archbishop, then and there caused to be opened and taken out, and being opened and taken out, saw and examined the same. And our said Lord he King then immediately, in the presence of those before mentioned, caused he said seal to be again inclosed in the said bag, and the said seal inclosed in he said bag, sealed with the signet of the said most reverend Cardinal, delivered o the said most reverend Cardinal, to be by him kept and used by the said nost reverend Cardinal, whom he then and there constituted his Chancellor, with all diets, fees, profits, rewards, robes, commodities, and advantages to the office of Chancellor of England of old due, belonging or appertaining, and the aid most reverend Cardinal, the said seal in the presence of the persons before nentioned, then and there received from the aforesaid most invincible King.". tct. Cl. 7 Hen. 8. m. 1. On the 24th of December following there is an entry n the Close Roll of the new Chancellor being sworn in by the King at his alace at Eltham. The tenor of the oath is set out in English. XXVII. CHAP. sible, the appearance of compulsion on the retiring Chancellor, or of any intriguing by his successor; but there can be no doubt that Wolsey, from the time of his obtaining the rank of Cardinal with the legatine authority, had taken every opportunity to insult Warham, with a view of driving him from Court, and that the Great Seal had long been an object of ambition to him, on account of the profit and power it would bring him, and perhaps likewise from the opportunity it would afford him to add to his reputation for learning, ability, and eloquence. The parade which he immediately made of the trappings of the office of Chancellor, and the manner in which he devoted himself to the discharge of its duties, showed that he had clutched it as eagerly, and that he enjoyed it as intensely, as any preferment ever bestowed upon him.* * Cav. 93. CHAPTER XXVIII. LIFE OF CARDINAL WOLSEY FROM HIS APPOINTMENT AS LORD Homage paid to Wolsey by foreign powers. WOLSEY was now in the zenith of his greatness. At this CHAP. period, the Crown was absolute in England, and he alone XXVIII. wielded all its power. He was in consequence courted with the greatest obsequiousness by Francis I. and Charles V., the rival monarchs, who were contending for superiority on the continent of Europe, and who felt that the result of the struggle depended to a considerable degree on his friendship. They not only flattered him by letters and embassies, but settled large pensions upon him, which there was no law or etiquette then prevailing to prevent him from accepting. The Doge of Venice, likewise, sent him a large pecuniary gratification, with letters containing the most fulsome adulation. "In all things the Chancellor was honoured like the King's person, and sat always at his right hand. In all places where the King's arms were put up, the Chancellor's appeared alongside of them, so that in every honour the Sovereign and his minister were equal."† The money coined with the Cardinal's hat upon it was now current without objection, though made the ground of one of the charges against him on his fall. The University of Oxford is supposed to have exceeded all the rest of the nation in servility towards him, and to have almost committed treason, by styling him in their addresses, “Your Majesty ;" but this appellation had not then been exclu As a specimen: "Incredibilis vestræ reverendissimæ Dominationis virtus et sapientia." Again, using the third person: "Ut nihil tam arduum difficileque foret (si modo id honestum esset et conducibile) quod non ipsa sua bonitate ultro vellet; sapientissime ac providentissime disponeret; auctoritate quam meritissime in regno isto supremum tenet, optime possit conficere." Bellay, the French ambassador, an eye-witness. Consultissima tua Majestas; reverendissima Majestas; inaudita Majestatis tuæ benignitas; vestra illa sublimis et longè reverendissima Majestas." By the University of Oxford. |