II CHAP republic of Venice while Wolsey was at the height of his power, has left us a description of him which enables us to form a good idea as to what kind of man he appeared to a foreigner well acquainted with the English court, and with the affairs of England:— Venetian ambassador's him "He is about forty-six years old, very handsome, learned, extremely eloquent, of vast ability, and indefatigable. He opinion of alone transacts the same business as that which occupies all the magistrates, offices and councils of Venice, both civil and criminal; and all state affairs likewise are managed by him, let their nature be what it may. He is pensive, and has the reputation of being extremely just. He favours the people. exceedingly, and especially the poor, hearing their suits and seeking to despatch them instantly. He also makes the lawyers plead gratis for all paupers. He is in very great repute, seven times more so than if he were Pope. He is the person who rules both the King and the entire kingdom. On the ambassador's first arrival in England, he used to say, 'His Majesty will do so and so;' subsequently by degrees he went on forgetting himself, and commenced saying, 'We shall do so and so.' At this present he has reached such a pitch that he says 'I shall do so and so.' This was written some years after Henry VIII. had become king, but it doubless applies equally to the earlier part of his reign, for Cavendish, Wolsey's own confidential attendant during all the time of nis 2 Giustiniani's Despatches, ii. 314. Wolsey's policy, courage, and integrity, eventually won for him the respect and confidence of European sovereigns to an extent which has only found a parallel in the case of the Duke of Wellington. The Popes, Charles V., Francis I., the Doge of Venice, and Margaret of Savoy, followed his advice whenever he chose to give it. Charles V. even wrote letters at his dictation, and re-wrote them when not copied closely enough from Wolsey's minutes. [Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., iii. 1788, 1808. See also 1737, 1798, 1829, 1906, 2999, &c., &c.] That proud princess, Margaret of Savoy, actually wished Wolsey to call her mother because of the love she bore him, hoping, as she quaintly adds, that she shall one day be mother of her father, "that is, of our holy father." [Ibid, 1804.1 II of Govern ment his hands high station and power, says that he rose to favour CHAP with the young king, and consequently to great eminence, almost immediately after the accession of the latter. "Such was his policy and wit, and so he Business brought all things to pass that who was now in high favour but Mr. Almoner? and who ruled all under thrown on the King but Mr. Almoner? . . . . no man was of that estimation of the King as he was for his wisdom and other witty qualities." Thus when there was a great disinclination for public business on the part of all the great men of the time, it is not surprising that the principal weight of it should soon fall on the shoulders of one who was beginning to display a special competency for bearing the burden, and a ready willingness to accept the responsibility. Fox, Bishop of Winchester, and Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, were both of them glad to get rid of these burdens and responsibilities, and soon threw them nearly all, not by compulsion (as has been sometimes said) but of their own free choice, into Wolsey's hands. There had seldom been a greater position for an ambitious subject to occupy, and seldom so great a man to occupy it. nient to him The influence which Wolsey had with the king, was, however, far from being so paramount as has been commonly represented. In his early life, Conve Henry naturally disliked to burden himself with the the king details of government, and among all his servants he to trust found none whom he could so thoroughly trust for relieving him from them and carrying on the work of government successfully as Wolsey. At a later period, the king's personal feelings and interests were so much involved in the public business of the Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog., i. 335. II CHAP Country that he was as eager to take part in the labours of state management as he had previously been anxious to avoid them. Wolsey had been in full power for ten years before the king was thirty years of age, and it was not until then that the latter began to take any special interest in public affairs : but from that time, and during the remaining eight years of Wolsey's government, Henry was gradually becoming more and more competent to take a full share in the practical oversight of the state; and as his abilities thus developed, so he became less willing to occupy the position of a pageant-king. Wolsey's influence with him in the preceding period had been that which naturally belonged to his position as the great working viceroy of the kingdom, and Henry seems to have had a feeling of private friendship towards him as well as of official dependency. But at thirty, the king's character began to undergo that great moral deterioration which makes so striking a contrast between his promising youth and his maturer years. As the force of his character strengthened, the baser elements of it developed themselves, and thus his strong will became associated with an intense and most selfish jealousy for his personal interests. From First signs this time we find evidence that his reliance upon of opposi Wolsey was much less confiding than formerly: part of the while Wolsey himself often shows signs of doubt as king tion on the to the king's support and co-operation. There are instances on record of Henry's vigorous opposition to the plans of his prime minister: and the state The Cardinal's actual position may be best understood by imagining that of a modern prime min ister acting constitutionally for the Sovereign, but almost entirely free from the control of Parliament. II VIII. papers show that the king often required Wolsey to CHAP state and re-state the grounds on which he had advised any particular course, not unfrequently refusing to agree to it after all. Cavendish also relates several anecdotes which show how violent and obstinate the king had become towards Wolsey Self-will while the divorce business was being carried on: and of Henry the Cardinal himself declared on his deathbed, "He is a prince of royal courage, and hath a princely heart, and rather than he will miss or want any part of his will or pleasure, he will endanger the loss of the one-half of his realm. For I assure you, I have often kneeled before him, the space sometimes of three hours, to persuade him from his will and appetite; but I could never dissuade him therefrom." In still later days, Henry was known to have boxed the ears of Lord Cromwell; and the passionate wilfulness which had then developed into such an extreme form was at work, long before, in the days of Wolsey's government. thwarted These particulars are mentioned here to show that Wolsey's Wolsey was far from having everything his own plans thu. way; and that, at least during his latter years, he was much thwarted by the king. It thus becomes. extremely probable that he was obliged to modify his course in several important matters from a conviction that it would be impossible to gain the king's 5 It is worth notice that, even as early as 1518, the King overruled Wolsey's wishes about the appointment to a bishopric. Wolsey wished Bolton, the Prior of St. Bartholomew's, to be nominated Bishop of St. Asaph, but the King refused his consent, and appointed instead Standish, Provincial of the Friars Observants, the great foe of Erasmus, and afterwards the great Cavendish, in Wordsworth's Similarity position to Ximenes CHAP acquiescence to his plans; and in some other cases II to take a line different from that pointed out by his own judgment, for the sake of reconciling the king to his continuance in office. Such appears to have been the case with regard to Wolsey's plans for the Reformation of the Church, his condemnation of "Lutheran" books, and his treatment of the divorce question; and even his astute policy could not prevent the shipwreck of his fortunes and happiness. The political position accorded to Wolsey was no of Wolsey's doubt suggested by that which Cardinal Ximenes was that of occupying in the kingdom of Spain, and which he occupied for nearly twenty years, almost up to the time of his death in 1517. It is also probable that Wolsey's ideas on the subject of Church Reform were derived in some degree from the course taken by his great Spanish contemporary, who founded an university, made vigorous efforts to revive a better discipline among the clergy and monks, and encouraged with a noble liberality the establishment of a sound scriptural school of theology. But the necessity for such reforms was evident to all good and observant men of that time and we have already seen how vigorously Dean Colet urged it upon the bishops at the opening of the Convocation of Canterbury in 1512. Possibly Wolsey, being then Dean of Lincoln and Canon of Windsor, was present at this Convocation, and if so, the earnest words of one with whom he had some personal acquaintance, if not friendship, may have had their effect in consolidating his own opinions on the subject. 7 See also page 9. 8 Colet and Wolsey were con temporaries at Magdalen College, Oxford: and there seems to be His own great mind was, some indication of private friendship, in the fact that Colet preached at Westminster Abbey on the occasion of Wolsey's installation as |