Chapter XIII: Act II: Sc. 1). One of its antient significations was a sharp bit

to break horses with. A farrier's _brake_ was a machine to confine or trammel the legs of unruly horses. An antient instrument of torture was also called _a brake_; and a thorny _brake_ meant an intricate thicket of thorns. Shakerly Marmion, in his comedy of 'Holland's Leaguer', evidently uses the word in the same sense with Cavendish:

"-------Her I'll make
A stale to catch this courtier in _a brake_."

[107] The 3d Day of July (1526), the Cardinal of Yorke passed through the City of London, with many lords and gentlemen, to the number of twelve hundred horse----The 11th day of May he took shipping at Dover, and landed at Calais the same day.

_Grafton_, p. 1150.

[108] _Lanzen-Knechts_, the name by which these bands of German mercenaries were then designated.

[109] Cavendish uses this word again in his poems:

"Wherin was found a certyn _defuse_ clause
Wrested by craft to a male intente." p. 139.

See _Fox's Acts_, &c. p. 1769:

"_Cook._ Then answere me, What sayest thou to the blessed sacrament of the altar? Tell me:

"_Jackson._ I answered; it is a _diffuse_ question, to aske me at the first dash, you promising to deliver me." See also p. 1574. "_Diffuse_ and _difficult_."

It appears to have been used in the sense of _obscure_, but _difficult_ is the reading of Grove's edition. I find _diffused_ explained by Cotgrave "_diffus_, _espars_, OBSCURE." And in a Latin Greek and English Lexicon by R. Hutton, printed at London by H. Bynneman, 1583, the Latin adverb, _obscure_, is interpreted "darkely, obscurely, DIFFUSELY."

[110] The great seal could not be carried out of the king's dominions without violating the law; letters patent were passed to enable Dr. Taylor to hold it in his absence.

[111] _Stradiots and Arbenois._ These were light armed cavalry, said by Guicciardini to have been Greek mercenaries in the service of Venice, retaining their Greek name στρατιώται. Arbenois is Albanians, _Albanois_, FR. The following passage from _Nicot Thresor de la Langue Françoise, ed. 1606. fol._ will fully explain this:

"A présent on apelle en particulier _Albanois_ ces hommes de cheval armez à la légère, autrement dit Stratiote, ou _Stradiots_ (par la consonne moyenne), qui portent les chapeaux à haute testière, desquels on se sert pour chevaux légers, qui viennent dudit pays d'Albanie, dont les Papes se servent encore de ce temps és garnisons de plusieurs villes du Saint siège, _Albani, olim Epirotæ_."

[112] In like manner, we saw, a little above, that at Calais he gave "benediction and pardon." From a letter to the cardinal, from Humfrey Monmouth, confined in the Tower on suspicion of heresy, we may gather what notion was entertained, even by comparatively enlightened men, of the efficacy of these pardons. "If I had broken most part of the Ten Commandments of God, being penitent and confessed (I should be forgiven) by reason of certain pardons that I have, the which my company and I had graunted, whan we were at Rome, going to Jerusalem, of the holy father the pope, _a pœna et a culpa_, for certain times in the year: and that, I trust in God, I received at Easter last past. Furthermore I received, when your grace was last at Pawles, I trust in God, your pardon of _a pœna_ _et a culpa_; the which I believe verily, if I had done never so great offences, being penitent and confessed, and axing forgiveness, that I should have forgiveness." _Strype's Ecclesiast. Memor._ vol. i. p. 248. Appendix. The cardinal had also a bull granted by Pope Leo Xth. A. D. 1518. to give in certain cases and conditions plenary remission from all sins. _Fiddes_, p. 48. Appendix. _W._

[113] Among other distinguished honours conferred by Francis upon the Cardinal was the singular privilege of pardoning and releasing prisoners and delinquents confined in the towns through which he passed, in the same manner as the king himself was used to do: the only culprits excluded from the power of pardon given him by this patent were those guilty of the most capital crimes.

[114] i. e. _Switzers_. Cavendish revels in his subsequent description of the _tall Scots_ who formed the French king's body guard.

[115]

Whose mule if it should be sold
So gayly trapped with velvet and gold
And given to us for our schare,
I durst ensure the one thing
As for a competent lyvynge
This seven yeare we should not care.
_Roy's Satire._

In the picture of the Champs de drap d'or, which has been engraved by the Society of Antiquaries, the cardinal appears mounted on a richly caparisoned mule.

[116] A previous negotiation of a singular nature had been begun, for the Bishop of Bath writes to the cardinal in March, 1527, that "Francis is very desirous to have the Princess Mary, and to have her delivered into his hands as soon as the peace is concluded. Our king pretends her non age, and will have all, pension, &c., concluded first. The Queen Regent is earnest also for the present marriage: Saying there is no danger, for she herself was married at xi. And for this match there might be a device to satisfy both sides, saying the princess will be well toward xii by August. At that time both princes should meet at Calais with a small company and charge, there her son, after the marriage solemnized, might abide himself for an hour or less with my Lady Princess; she said the king her son was a man of honour and discretion, and would use no violence, especially the father and mother being so nigh; meaning, that _conatus ad copulam cum illa, quæ est proxima pubertati, prudentia supplente ætatem_, should make every thing sure that neither party should now vary. So the king her son might be assured of his wife, and King Henry carry back his daughter till she should be accounted more able, &c. This overture our ambassadors think very strange." _Fiddes Collections_, p. 176. The Bishop of Bath returned into England soon after the cardinal went on his mission, to relate to Henry the course adopted by the cardinal in treating with Francis, and also to explain to him certain devices concerning his own secret matters. _Mr. Master's Collections._

[117] Skinner explains this word, _a curtain_. It evidently signifies here an enclosed or divided space or seat, decorated with rich draperies or curtains. In another place we have _a traverse of sarsenet_, which confirms Skinner's explanation.

[118] Grises, greeses, or _steps_, for it was spelt various ways according to the caprice of the writer, from the Latin _gressus_.

[119] The _roodeloft_ was the place where the cross stood; it was generally placed over the passage out of the church into the chancel.

[120] The passage within brackets is not to be found in any of the more recent MSS., nor in Dr. Wordsworth's edition.

[121] Erasmus, in a letter to Aleander, dwells with delight upon this custom:

"Quanquam si Britanniæ dotes satis pernosses Fauste, næ tu alatis pedibus, huc accurreres; et si podagra tua non sineret, Dædalum te fieri optares. Nam ut e pluribus unum quiddam attingam. Sunt hic nymphæ divinis vultibus, blandae, faciles, et quas tu tuis Camænis facile anteponas. _Est præterea mos nunquam satis laudatus_: Sive quo venias omnium osculis exciperis; sive discedas aliquo, osculis demitteris: redis? redduntur suavia; venitur ad te? propinantur suavia: disceditur abs te? dividuntur basia: occuritur alicubi? basiatur affatim: denique, quocunque te moveas, suaviorum plena sunt omnia. Quæ si tu, Fauste, gustasses semel quam sint mollicula, quam fragrantia, profecto cuperes non decennium solum, ut Solon fecit, sed ad mortem usque in Anglia peregrinari." _Erasmi Epistol._ p. 315, edit. 1642. "It becometh nat therefore the persones religious to folowe _the maner of secular persones_, that in theyr congresses and commune metyngs or departyng done use to kysse, take hands, or such other touchings, that good religious persones shulde utterly avoyde." _Whytford's Pype of Perfection._ fol. 213. b. A. D. 1532. _W._

[122] This name is spelt _Creeky_ and _Crykky_ in the autograph MS. In Wordsworth's edition it is Crokey. Grove has it _Crockly_, and two of the MSS. copies _Crokir_. I know not whether I have divined the true orthography, but there was a noble family of this name at the time.

[123] _Evensong._ "Which persons for their waiting befoir noon hath licence at afternoon to go about their own business from the saide noon to iij of the clocke that evensong begin."

_Northumberland Household Book_, p. 310.

[124] The shalme, or shawm, was a wind instrument like a hautboy, with a swelling protuberance in the middle. In "Commenius's Visible World," translated by Hoole, 1659, the Latin word _gingras_ is translated by shawn, and the form of the instrument is represented as below. Its proper name appears to have been _shawme_; it is derived from the Teutonic. Drayton mentions it as shrill-toned: 'E'en from the shrillest _shaum_ unto the cornamute.'

_Polyolbion_ v. iv. p. 376.

[125] _Now_, Wordsworth's edit. The passages within brackets which follow are not found in any other manuscript: a space almost always marking the deficiency of this relation, and the succeeding account of the libels of the French against the cardinal.

[126] Catherine Reneé, one of the daughters of Louis the Twelfth. It does not seem that this exposition of the cardinal's views in regard to the union of Henry with this princess, in case of a divorce, were without foundation, for he persuaded himself that Henry's passion for Anne Boleyn would soon subside, and thought this alliance a sure mode of perpetuating the peace and union between the sovereigns. The other part of the assertion was proved true by the subsequent treaty, in which it was agreed that the Princess Mary should marry either Francis, or the Duke of Orleans; the first if he should remain a widower until she was of sufficient age, the second if it seemed expedient that Francis should keep his faith to the emperor, and marry his sister Leonora, to whom he was contracted by the Treaty of Madrid. Hence the necessity of keeping these designs secret, and the cardinal's anger at their developement.

[127] This passage stands in the ordinary MSS., and in Dr. Wordsworth's edition, in the following abridged and confused manner. The transcribers of the MSS. appear to have been sensible that their copy was defective, for in several of them one or two blank leaves are here left.

"Now shortly after there were divers malicious practices pretended against us by the French, who by their theft somewhat impaired us: whereupon one of them, being a man I was well acquainted with, maintained a seditious untruth, openly divulged, and set forth by a subtle and traitorous subject of their realm, saying also that he doubted not, but the like had been attempted within the king of England his majesty's dominions; but to see so open and manifest blasphemy to be openly punished, according to their traitorous deserts, notwithstanding I saw but small redress."

[128] The twentieth of October, A. D. 1527. The embassadors were the Maréchal de Montmorency, the Bishop of Bayonne, the President of Rouen, and Monsieur d'Humieres.

[129] The book of ceremonies (compiled under the influence of the Bishops Gardiner and Tonstall, and in opposition to that of Cranmer, about the year 1540, and designed to retain in the church many operose and superstitious rites, by setting them off with the aids of a philosophical and subtle interpretation), describing in succession the different parts of the Canon of the Mass, proceeds thus, "Then saith the priest _thrice_, _Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, &c._ advertising us of _three_ effects of Christ's passion; whereof the _first_ is, deliverance from the misery of sin; the _second_ is from pain of everlasting damnation; wherefore he saith twice _Miserere nobis_, that is to say, _Have mercy on us_; and the _third_ effect is, giving of everlasting peace, consisting in the glorious fruition of God." _Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials_, Vol. i. p. 289. Records. See also _Mirror of our Lady_. fol. 189, and _Becon's Works_. Vol. iii. fol. 49. A. D. 1564. _W._

[130] These cupboards or rather sideboards of plate were necessary appendages to every splendid entertainment. The form of them somewhat resembled some of the old cumbrous cabinets to be found still in ancient houses on the continent. There was a succession of step-like stages, or desks, as Cavendish calls them, upon which the plate was placed. The reader will have a better conception than description can convey of this piece of antient ostentation, from a print in a very curious work by Julio Bello, entitled LAUREA AUSTRIACA: _Francof._ 1627, folio, p. 640. Where our King James I. is represented entertaining the Spanish ambassadors in 1623.

[131] _Proface._ An expression of welcome equivalent to Much good may it do you! Mr. Steevens conjectured it to be from the old French expression, '_Bon prou leur face_,' which is to be found in Cotgrave _in voce_ PROU. This was a happy conjecture of Mr. Steevens, for Mr. Nares has pointed out its true origin in the old Norman-French or Romance language: 'PROUFACE souhait qui veut dire, bien vous fasse, _proficiat_.' ROQUEFORT. _Glossaire de la Langue Romane._

[132] 'Mademoiselle de Boulan à la fin y est venue, et l'a le Roy logée en fort beau logis, qu'il a fait bien accoustrer tout auprès du sien, et luy est la cour faicte ordinairement tous les jours plus grosse que de long temps ne fut faicte à la Royne.'

_Lettre de l'Evesque de' Bayonne._

[133] It is a question of fact which has been warmly debated, whether the suffrages of the Universities in Henry's favour were purchased by money. It does not seem very necessary that _we_ should enter into this dispute. But any one who wishes so to do, may consult _Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation_, Vol. iii. p. 401, Appendix. _Harmer's Specimen of Errors_, p. 7. _Fiddes's Life of Wolsey_, p. 420. _Poli Epistolæ_, Vol. i. p. 238. A. D. 1744. _W._

[134] Eight of these determinations soon after were printed in one volume, with a long Discourse in support of the judgments contained in them, under the following title: "The Determinations of the moste famous and moste excellent Universities of Italy and Fraunce, that it is so unlefull for a man to marry his Brother's Wyfe, that the Pope hath no power to dispence therewith: imprinted by Thomas Berthelet the viith day of Novembre, 1531." They were also published in Latin: in which language they are exhibited by Bishop Burnet in his _Hist. of the Reformation_, Vol. i. book ii. No. 34. Records. _W._

[135] i. e. the _Bulla_ or Papal seal. The passage marked with * * contains three words which I could not decipher.

[136] Doctor _Stephen_ Gardiner, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, at this time in great estimation with Wolsey. In letters and other documents of this period he is often called Doctor _Stevens_. Mr. Grainger in the third vol. of Bishop Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation, p. 385, Appendix, intimates that this was a colloquial vulgarism; "_vulgarly_, as Stephen Gardiner was Mr. _Stevyns_, in Wolsey's Letter." But it is questionable, I think, whether this is the true account of that name. The bishop himself, in his Declaration of his Articles against George Joye, A. D. 1546, fol. 3. b. of the 4to edition, thus speaks of it, "a booke, wherein he wrote, how Doctor _Stevens_ (by _whiche name_ I was _then_ called) had deceyved him."

In Doctor Barnes' account of his examination before the bishops at Westminster, he calls Gardiner "Doctor Stephen then secretary."

[137] The reader may consult Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation, Vol. iii. p. 46-48. The bishop affirms positively that the king did not appear personally, but by proxy; and that the queen withdrew after reading a protest against the competency of her judges. "And from this it is clear (says the bishop), that the speeches that the historians have made for them are all plain falsities." It is easy to contradict the confident affirmation of the historian upon the authority of a document published by himself in his Records, i. 78. It is a letter from the king to his agents, where he says: "At which time both we and the queen appeared in person, and they minding to proceed further in the cause, the queen would no longer make her abode to hear what the judges would fully descern, but incontinently departed out of the court; wherefore she was thrice preconnisate, and called eftsoons to return and appear; which she refusing to do, was denounced by the judges _contumax_, and a citation decerned for her appearance on Friday." Which is corroborated also by _Fox's Acts_, p. 958. Indeed the testimony for the personal appearance of the king before the cardinals is surprisingly powerful; even though we do not go beyond Cavendish, and the other ordinary historians. But in addition to these, Dr. Wordsworth has produced the authority of William Thomas, Clerk of the Council in the reign of King Edward VI, a well informed writer; who, in a professed Apology for Henry VIII, extant in MS. in the Lambeth and some other libraries, speaking of this affair affirms, "that the Cardinal (Campeggio) caused the king as a private party in person to appear before him, and the Lady Katharine both." P. 31.

[138] Hall has given a different report of this speech of the queen's, which he says was made _in French_, and translated by him, as well as he could, from notes taken by Cardinal Campeggio's secretary. In his version she accuses Wolsey with being the first mover of her troubles, and reproaches him, in bitter terms, of pride and voluptuousness: such harsh language could hardly deserve the praise '_modeste tamen eam locutum fuisse_,' given by Campeggio.

[139] See _Neve's Animadversions on Phillips's Life of Cardinal Pole_, p. 62.

[140] Nothing of this kind is to be found in the journal of this embassy, or in the letters of the bishop and his companions, which have been preserved, and many of which have been published by _Le Grand, Histoire du Divorce de Henri VIII._

[141] "In a Manuscript Life of Sir Thomas More, written not many years after Longland's death, this account is given. 'I have heard Dr. Draycot, that was his (Longland's) chaplain and chancellor, say, that he once told the bishop what rumour ran upon him in that matter; and desired to know of him the very truth. Who answered, that in very deed he did not break the matter after that sort, as is said: but the king brake the matter to him first; and never left urging him until he had won him to give his consent. Of which his doings he did forethink himself, and repented afterward.' MSS. Coll. Eman. Cantab." Baker's Notes on _Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation_: in Burnet, Vol. iii. p. 400, Appendix. The same Life is among the MSS. in the Lambeth Library, No. 827, (see fol. 12), and, I have reason to think, was composed about the year 1556, and by Nicolas Harpsfield. From these concurrent testimonies it should appear, that the charge which has been often urged against Wolsey, that it was through his intrigues that Longland first suggested his scruples to the king, is unfounded. _W._

Wolsey was at the time loudly proclaimed as the instigator of the divorce, and though he denied it upon some occasions, he admitted it on others; but Cardinal Pole asserts that it was first suggested by certain divines whom Anne Boleyn sent to him for that purpose. It is remarkable that he says this when writing to the king, and would surely not have ventured to say so if he had not had good grounds for the assertion.

[142] July, 1529.

[143] This determination of Campeggio was in consequence of secret instructions from the pope (unknown to Wolsey), at the instance of the emperor, who had prevailed upon the pontiff to adjourn the court and remove the cause to Rome.

[144] These proceedings led the way to the next great step in the progress of the Reformation, the renunciation of the pope's authority, and the establishment of the regal supremacy. The following account, from an unpublished treatise, of the manner in which these questions were first brought to the king's mind (whether authentic or not) may not be unacceptable to my readers.

"Now unto that you say, that because Pope Clement would not dispense with his second matrimonie, his majestie extirped out of England the papal authoritie, a thinge of most auncient and godly reverence as you take it, I aunsweare that after the kinges highness had so appeared in person before the Cardinal Campegio, one of the princes of his realm, named the _Duke of Suffolk_, a great wise man, and of more familiaritie with the kinge than any other person, asked his majestie, 'how this matter might come to passe, that a prince in his own realme should so humble himself before the feet of a vile, strange, vitious priest,' (for Campegio there in England demeaned himself in very deed most carnally -- --). Whereunto the king aunswered, "he could not tell; but only that it seemed unto him, the spiritual men ought to judge spiritual matters; and yet as you saye (said the king) me seemeth there should be somewhat in it, and I would right gladly understand, why and how, were it not that I would be loth to appeare more curious than other princes." "Why, sir (sayd the duke), your majestie may cause the matter to be discussed secretly by your learned men, without any rumour at all." "Very well (sayd the kinge), and so it shall be." And thus inspired of God, called he diverse of his trusty and great doctours unto him; charging them distinctly to examine, _what lawe of God should direct so carnal a man as Campegio, under the name of spiritual, to judge a king in his owne realme_. According unto whose commandment, these doctors resorting together unto an appointed place, disputed this matter _large et stricte_, as the case required. And as the blacke by the white is knowen, so by conferring the oppositions together, it appeared that the evangelical lawe varied much from the canon lawes in this pointe. So that in effect, because two contraries cannot stand _in uno subjecto, eodem casu et tempore_, they were constrained to recurre unto the kinges majesties pleasure, to knowe whether of these two lawes should be preferred: who smiling at the ignorance of so fonde a question aunsweared, that the Gospell of Christ ought to be the absolute rule unto all others; commanding them therefore to followe the same, without regard either to the civile, canon, or whatsoever other lawe. And here began the quicke: for these doctours had no sooner taken the Gospel for their absolute rule, but they found this popish authoritie over the kinges and princes of this earth to be usurped." _William Thomas's Apology for King Henry the Eighth_, written A. D. 1547. p. 34. Lambeth Library. MSS. No. 464. _W._

[145] The history and occasion of this great obligation of the Duke of Suffolk to the cardinal, who plainly intimates that but for his interposition the duke must have lost his life, does not appear to be known to the historians. See _Fiddes's Life of Wolsey_. p. 454. _W._

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1755 (Dr. Pegge), who appears to have paid much attention to the Cardinal Wolsey's history, suggests that Wolsey was the means of abating the anger of Henry at the marriage of Suffolk with his sister Mary Queen of France, which might have been made a treasonable offence. A letter from Mary to Wolsey, dated March 22, 1515, after her marriage with Suffolk, which is still extant in the Cotton Collection, gives some probability to this conjecture.

[146] i. e. Dr. Stephen Gardiner.

[147] i. e. The season of hunting, when the hart is in _grease_ or full season. Dr. Wordsworth's edition and the more recent manuscripts read--'all _that_ season.'

[148] The following additional particulars of the route are found in more recent MSS. "And were lodged the first night at a towne in Bedfordshire, called Leighton Bussarde, in the parsonage there, being Mr. Doctor Chambers's benefice, the kings phisitian. And from thence they rode the next day."

[149] The king had listened to their suggestions against the cardinal, and they felt assured of success; they are represented by an eyewitness, as boasting openly that they would humble him and all churchmen, and spoil them of their wealth: "La faintaisie de ces seigneurs est, que lui mort ou ruiné ils déferrent incontinent icy l'estat de l'eglise, et prendront tous leurs biens; qu'il seroit ja besoing que je le misse en chiffre, car ils le crient en plaine table."

_L'Evesque de Bayonne, Le Grand_, Tom. iii. p. 374.

[150] "Le pis de son mal est, que Mademoiselle de Boulen a faict promettre à son Amy qu'il ne l'escoutera jamais parler; car elle pense bien qu'il ne le pourroit garder d'en avoir pitié."

_Lettre de l'Eveque de Bayonne ap. Le Grand_, Tom. iii. p. 375.

The manor of THE MOOR was situate in the parish of Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire; the site is still called Moor Park. It was purchased and the house built by George Neville, Archbishop of York. Edward the fourth had promised to make that prelate a visit there, and while he was making suitable preparations to receive his royal master he was sent for to Windsor, and arrested for high treason. The king seized at the Moor all his rich stuff and plate to the value of 20,000_l._ keeping the archbishop prisoner at Calais and Hammes. _Stowe_, A^o. 1472. There was a survey of the house in 1568, by which it appears the mansion was of brick, the chief buildings forming a square court, which was entered by a gate-house with towers: the whole was moated. It was then in a dilapidated state.

[151] "Le Cardinal Campège est encores à Douvres, et à ceste heure (je) viens d'entendre que, soubz couleur de faute de Navires, on ne le veult laisser passer, sans y prendre avis, de paeur qu'il n'emporte le thrésor du Card. d'Yorc."

_Lettre de l'Evesque de Bayonne, apud Le Grand Hist. du Divorce._

[152] The Term then began the ninth of October.

[153] Esher.

[154] The Eighteenth November, 1529.

[155] This inventory is preserved among the Harleian MSS. No. 599.

[156] These words follow in the more recent MSS. "Yet there was laide upon every table, bokes, made in manner of inventories, reporting the number and contents of the same. And even so there were bokes made in manner of inventories of all things here after rehearsed, wherein he toke great paines to set all things in order against the king's comming."

[157] Baudkyn, cloth made partly of silk and partly of gold. Derived from _Baldacca_, an Oriental name for Babylon, being brought from thence.--"_Baldekinum_--pannus omnium ditissimus, cujus, utpote stamen ex filio _auri_, subtegmen ex _serico_ texitur, plumario opere intertextus." _Ducange Glossar. in voce._ It sometimes is used for a _canopy_ or _cloth of state_.

[158] The name of Cardinal Wolsey's fool is said to have been "Master Williams, otherwise called Patch." An inquiry into this very curious feature in the domestic manners of the great in ancient times could not fail to be very interesting. Mr. Douce has glanced at the subject in his Illustrations of Shakspeare; and gave his friends reason to hope for a more enlarged inquiry at a future period: it would afford me real pleasure to hear that his intentions were not finally abandoned.

[159] The Bishop of Bayonne, who paid him a visit of commiseration at this period, gives the following affecting picture of his distress, in a most interesting letter which will be found in the Appendix; he says: "J'ay esté voir le Cardinal en ses ennuis, où que j'y ay trouvé _le plus grand example de fortune qu' on ne sçauroit voir_, il m'a remonstré son cas en la plus mauvaise rhétorique que je vis jamais, _car cueur et parolle luy falloient entièrement_; il a bien pleuré et prié que le Roy et Madame voulsissent avoir pitié du luy--mais il m'a à la fin laissé sans me povoir dire austre chose qui vallist mieux que son visage; qui est bien dechue de la moitié de juste pris. Et vous promets, Monseigneur, que sa fortune est telle que ses ennemis, encores qu'ils soyent Anglois, ne se sçauroyent garder d'en avoir pitié, ce nonobstant ne le laisseront de le poursuivre jusques au bout." He represents him as willing to give up every thing, even the shirt from his back, and to live in a hermitage if the king would desist from his displeasure.

[160] Dr. Wordsworth's edition and the later manuscripts read: "_which had bine a strange sight in him afore_;" but this can hardly be right? The splendour of Cromwell's subsequent fortunes, their tragical close, and the prominent figure he makes in the events of this reign, which are among the most important of modern history, gives this circumstantial account a great degree of interest. His father was a blacksmith at Putney, the son was first an agent to an English factory at Antwerp, then a trooper in the Duke of Bourbon's army, and was present at the sacking of Rome. It appears that he assisted Mr. Russell (afterwards Earl of Bedford), in making his escape from the French at Bologna, and it is probably to this circumstance that he owed the friendly offices of that gentleman at a subsequent period. After passing some time in the counting-house of a Venetian merchant, he returned to England and studied the law. Wolsey, it appears, first met with him in France, and soon made him his principal agent in the dissolution of monasteries and the foundation of his colleges. It was a trust which he discharged with ability, and is said to have enriched himself; yet he here complains that he "never had any promotion at the cardinal's hands to the increase of his living." And he tells the cardinal in his troubles, that "the soliciting his cause hath been very chargeable to him, and he cannot sustain it any longer without other respect than he hath had heretofore." He says, "I am a thousand pounds worse than I was when your troubles began." And after announcing the king's determination to dissolve the cardinal's colleges, he says: "I intreat your grace to be content, and let your prince execute his pleasure."

Cardinal Pole relates that he openly professed to him his Machiavelian principles; he had learned, he said, "that vice and virtue were but names, fit indeed to amuse the leisure of the learned in their colleges, but pernicious to the man who seeks to rise in the courts of princes. The great art of the politician was, in his judgment, to penetrate through the disguise which sovereigns are accustomed to throw over their real inclinations, and to devise the most specious expedients by which they may gratify their appetites without appearing to outrage morality or religion." He shared largely in the public odium in which the cardinal was held, and Pole, who was then in London, says that the people loudly clamoured for his punishment.

[161] The day after it appears Cromwell was at court, and sought an audience from the king, which was granted him; Cardinal Pole, who had the account from Cromwell himself and others who were present, relates that upon this occasion Cromwell suggested to the king a mode of overcoming the difficulty of the pope's opposition to the divorce, by taking the authority into his own hands, and declaring himself head of the church within his own realm. The king gave ear to the proposition, and was so well pleased with Cromwell, that he thanked him, and admitted him to the dignity of a privy counsellor. This was the first step; to carry into effect this project his assistance was deemed necessary, and he arrived at length to the highest honours of the state; but at last became the victim of his own Machiavelian intrigues, and the vindictive spirit of the monarch. It has been doubted whether Cromwell deserves the credit of attachment to his fallen master to the whole extent which some writers have supposed. It is evident, from the very interesting conversation above, that he despaired of ever seeing Wolsey reinstated in his fortunes, and he was too subtle in his policy to have endeavoured to swim against the stream of court favour. That the cardinal suspected his fidelity to his cause is evident from fragments of two letters published by Fiddes among Mr. Master's collections, in one of which Cromwell says: "I am informed your grace hath me in some diffidence, as if I did dissemble with you, or procure any thing contrary to your profit and honour. I much muse that your grace should so think or suspect it secretly, considering the pains I have taken, &c. Wherefore I beseech you to speak without faining, if you have such conceit, that I may clear myself; I reckoned that your grace would have written plainly unto me of such thing, rather than secretly to have misrepresented me. But I shall bear your grace no less good will. Let God judge between us! Truly your grace in some things overshooteth yourself; there is regard to be given to what things you utter, and to whom."

The cardinal, in answer to this, protests: "that he suspects him not, and that may appear by his deeds, so that he useth no man's help nor counsel but his. Complaint indeed hath been made to him, that Cromwell hath not done him so good offices as he might concerning his colleges and archbishoprick; but he hath not believed them; yet he hath asked of their common friends how Cromwell hath behaved himself towards him; and to his great comfort hath found him faithful. Wherefore he beseecheth him, with weeping tears, to continue stedfast, and give no credit to the false suggestions of such as would sow variance between them, and so leave him destitute of all help."

But the testimony of Cavendish in his favour is conclusive; he says that, by reason of "his honest behaviour in his master's cause, he grew into such estimation in every man's opinion, that he was esteemed to be the most faithfullest servant to his master of all other, wherein he was of all men greatly commended."

[162] In _prease_, i. e. the _press_ or _crowd_.

[163] A writer before cited (Dr. Pegge), is of opinion that the House of Commons could not do otherwise than acquit him, notwithstanding the validity of several of the articles alleged against him, because he had either suffered the law for them already, or they were not sufficiently proved: indeed some of them were not proper grounds of censure.

'Wolsey says of these articles himself, "whereof a great part be untrue: and those which be true are of such sort, that by the doing thereof no malice or untruth can be arrected unto me, neither to the prince's person nor to the state." The rejection of the bill may be justly ascribed to the relentment of the king, for Cromwell would not have dared to oppose it, nor the Commons to reject it, had they not received an intimation that such was the royal pleasure.'

[164] During the visit of the Emperor Charles V. to Henry VIII. "on Monday at nine of the clocke at night, was begun a banquet, which endured till the next morning at three of the clocke, at the which banquet the emperor, the king, and the Queene did wash together, the Duke of Buckingham giving the water, the Duke of Suffolke holding the towel. Next them did washe _the Lord Cardinall_, the Queene of Fraunce, and the Queene of Arragon. At which banquet the emperor kept the estate, the king sitting on the left hand, next him the French Queene; and on the other side sate the Queene, _the Cardinall_, and the Queene of Aragon; which banquet was served by the emperor's owne servants." _Stowe's Annals_, p. 510. edit. 1615. _W._

[165] This instrument is published by Fiddes in his Collections, p. 224.

[166] The anguish and anxiety he suffered may be seen by the letters written at this period to his old servants Cromwell and Gardiner; I have placed them in the Appendix, as a necessary illustration of this affecting picture.

[167] In an extract from a letter to Cromwell, published by Fiddes, the cardinal says: "My fever is somewhat asswaged, and the black humour also, howbeit I am entering into the kalends of a more dangerous disease, which is the dropsy, so that if I am not removed into a dryer air, and that shortly, there is little hope." And in a letter to Gardiner, which will be found in the Appendix, he repeats his wish to be removed from Asher: "Continuing in this moiste and corrupt ayer, beyng enteryd in the passion of the dropsy, _Appetitus et continuo insomnio_, I cannot lyve: wherfor of necessyte I must be removed to some dryer ayer and place."

[168] _Stuff_ was the general term for all kind of _moveables_ or baggage. See the instrument of the king's benefaction to the cardinal after his forfeiture by the premunire, in Rymer's Fœdera, and in Fiddes' Collections. The reader will find the _Schedule_ which was affixed to it, in our Appendix.

[169] "From the old gallery next the king's lodging, unto the first gatehouse." _Wordsworth's Edition._

[170] "Of four thousand marks," say the more recent MSS. and Dr. Wordsworth's Edit.

[171] Those to whom they were granted appear to have been the Lord Sandys and his son Thomas; Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir Henry Guilford, Sir John Russel, and Sir Henry Norris. This suit to the cardinal seems to have been successfully brought about. Their pensions out of the revenues of the see of Winchester were settled on them for life by Act of Parliament, notwithstanding the just objection in the text. Rot. Parl. clxxxviii. Stat. 22 Hen. VIII. c. 22.

[172] From the Ital. _intagliare_, to cut, carve, &c.

[173] _Prêt, Somme prêtée._ Fr. A sum in advance. _W._

[174] "His train was in number one hundred and threescore persons." This addition is in Dr. Wordsworth's edition and the later MSS.

[175] He was now fifty-nine years old.

[176] The book of Ceremonies before cited, which was compiled in the reign of Henry VIII. observes: "Upon Easter Day in the morning _the ceremonies_ of the _resurrection_ be very laudable, to put us in remembrance of Christ's resurrection, which is the cause of our justification." _Strype's Eccles. Memorials_, v. i. p. 294. _Records._ What these ceremonies were we may collect from the Rubrics upon that day, in the _Processionale secundum usum Sarum_. fol. 72. edit. 1555; which are to this effect: On Easter Day, before mass, and before the ringing of the bells, let the clerks assemble, and all the tapers in the church be lighted. Then two persons shall draw nigh to the sepulchre, and after it is censed let them take the cross out of the sepulchre, and one of them begin _Christus resurgens_. Then let the procession commence. After this they shall all worship (_adorent_) the cross. Then let all the crucifixes and images in the church be unveiled, &c. &c. In like manner Good Friday also had its peculiar ceremonies. Bishop Longland closes his sermon preached on that day before King Henry VIII. A. D. 1538, in the following manner: "In meane season I shall exhorte you all in our Lord God, _as of old custome hath here this day bene used_, every one of you or ye departe, with moost entire devocyon, knelynge tofore our Savyour Lorde God, this our Jesus Chryst, whiche hath suffered soo muche for us, to whome we are soo muche bounden, _whoo lyeth in yonder sepulchre_; in honoure of hym, of his passyon and deathe, and of his five woundes, to say five Pater-nosters, five Aves, and one Crede: that it may please his mercifull goodness to make us parteners of the merites of this his most gloryous passyon, bloode, and deathe." _Imprynted by Thomas Petyt._ See also Michael Wood's _Dialogue or Familiar Talks_. A. D. 1554. Signat. D. 3. _W._

[177] See above, page 158, Dr. Wordsworth's note.

[178] In Mr. Ellis's very interesting collection of Historical Letters, vol. i. p. 176, there is an extract of a letter from Sir William Fitzwilliams, then on a mission in France, relating a conversation he had with the French king upon his hearing the Duke of Buckingham was in the Tower. With the Cardinal's answer.

[179] The favourable representation given of this portion of the cardinal's life, notwithstanding what is said by Fox, p. 908, is fully confirmed by an authority which cannot be suspected of partiality to his memory, that of a State Book, which came out from the office of the king's printer in the year 1536, intituled _A Remedy for Sedition_. "Who was lesse beloved in the Northe than my lord cardynall, God have his sowle, before he was amonges them? Who better beloved, after he had ben there a whyle? We hate oft times whom we have good cause to love. It is a wonder to see howe they were turned; howe of utter enemyes they becam his dere frendes. He gave byshops a ryght good ensample, howe they might wyn mens hartys. There was few holy dayes, but he would ride five or six myle from his howse, nowe to this parysh churche, nowe to that, and there cause one or other of his doctours to make a sermone unto the people. He sat amonges them, and sayd masse before all the paryshe. He sawe why churches were made. He began to restore them to their ryght and propre use. He broughte his dinner with hym, and bad dyvers of the parish to it. He enquired, whether there was any debate or grudge betweene any of them; yf there were, after dinner he sente for the parties to the churche, and made them all one. Men say well that do well. Godde's lawes shal never be so set by as they ought, before they be well knowen." Signat. E. 2. _W._

[180] In the more recent MS. and in Dr. Wordsworth's edition, "Newsted Abbey."

[181] Next, _i.e._ nearest.

[182] The prevailing hour of dinner with our ancestors appears to have been much earlier. In the Northumberland Household Book it is said, "to X of the clock that my lord goes to dinner."

"With us," says Harrison, in the Description of England, prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicle, p. 171, "the Nobilitie, Gentrie, and Students do ordinarilie go to dinner at eleven before noone, and to supper at five, or betweene five and six at afternoone. The merchants dine and sup seldome before twelve at noone, and six at night, especiallie in London. The husbandmen dine also at high noone, as they call it, and sup at seven or eight: but out of the tearme in our Universities the scholars dine at ten. As for the poorest sort, they generally dine and sup when they may: so that to talke of their order of repast, it were but a needlesse matter."

"_Theophilus._ You wente to diner betyme I perceave. _Eusebius._ Even as I doe commonly, when I have no busynes, betwene nyne and ten; me thinkes it is a good houre: for by that meanes I save a breakfast, whyche for such idlers as I am, is most fittest." _Dialogue between Eusebius and Theophilus._ Signat. B 4. A. D. 1556. _W._

[183] Dr. Brian Higden at that time bore the office.

[184] The Cardinal perhaps remembered the credit which was gained by his successful rival Cardinal Adrian, who being elected to the papacy by the Conclave, through the influence of the emperor Charles V. "before his entry into the cittie of Rome (as we are told by one of Sir Thomas More's biographers), putting off his hose and shoes, and as I have credibly heard it reported, bare-footed and bare-legged, passed through the streets towards his Palace, with such humbleness, that all the people had him in great reverence." Harpsfield's _Life of Sir Thomas More_. Lambeth MSS. No. 827, fol. 12. _W._

[185] Storer, in his Poetical Life of Wolsey, 1599, has availed himself of this declaration of the cardinal, in a passage justly celebrated for its eminent beauty. The image in the second stanza is worthy of a cotemporary of Shakspeare:

I did not mean with predecessors pride,
To walk on cloth as custom did require;
More fit that cloth were hung on either side
In mourning wise, or make the poor attire;
More fit the dirige of a mournful quire
In dull sad notes all sorrows to exceed,
For him in whom the prince's love is dead.

I am the tombe where that affection lies,
That was the closet where it living kept;
Yet wise men say, Affection never dies;--
No, but it turns; and when it long hath slept,
Looks heavy, like the eye that long hath wept.
O could it die, that were a restfull state;
But living, it converts to deadly hate.

[186] Dr. Percy, in the notes to the Northumberland Household Book, has adduced a very curious extract from one of the letters of this Earl of Northumberland, which he thinks affords a "full vindication of the earl from the charge of ingratitude in being the person employed to arrest the cardinal." However this may be, the earl appears to have felt the embarrassment of his situation; he trembled, and with a faltering voice could hardly utter the ungracious purport of his mission. To a mind of any delicacy the office must have been peculiarly distressing, and even supposing the earl to have been formerly treated in an arbitrary and imperious manner by the cardinal, it is one which he should have avoided. As the letter gives a very curious picture of the manners as well as the literature of our first nobility at that time, I shall place it in my appendix; the very curious volume in which it is to be found being of great rarity and value.

[187] "In the houses of our ancient nobility they dined at long tables. The Lord and his principal guests sate at the upper end of the first table, in the Great Chamber, which was therefore called the Lord's Board-end. The officers of his household, and inferior guests, at long tables below in the hall. In the middle of each table stood a great salt cellar; and as particular care was taken to place the guests according to their rank, it became a mark of distinction, whether a person sate above or below the salt."--_Notes on the Northumberland Household Book_, p. 419.

[188] The enemies of Archbishop Laud, particularly in the time of his troubles, were fond of comparing him with Cardinal Wolsey: and a garbled edition of this life was first printed in the year 1641, for the purpose of prejudicing that great prelate in the minds of the people, by insinuating a parallel between him and the cardinal. It is not generally known that, beside the edition of this life then put forth, a small pamphlet was also printed with the following title, "A true Description or rather Parallel betweene Cardinall Wolsey, Archbishop of York, and William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1641." As it is brief, and of extreme rarity, I shall give it a place in the Appendix.

[189] "But what he did there, I know not." The more recent MS. and Dr. Wordsworth's edition have this reading.

[190] The words which follow, I apprehend, are part of some ecclesiastical hymn. It was not unusual to attribute the name of _Scripture_ to all such compositions; and to whatever was read in churches. "Also I said and affirmed" (the words are part of the recantation of a Wickliffite), "that I held no _Scripture_ catholike nor holy, but onely that is contained in the Bible. For the legends and lives of saints I held hem nought; and the miracles written of hem, I held untrue." Fox's _Acts_, p. 591. _W._

[191] "I know not whether or no it be worth the mentioning here (however we will put it on the adventure), but Cardinal Wolsey, in his life time was informed by some fortune-tellers, _that he should have his end at Kingston_. This, his credulity interpreted of Kingston on Thames; which made him alwayes to avoid the riding through that town, though the nearest way from his house to the court. Afterwards, understanding that he was to be committed by the king's express order to the charge of Sir Anthony [William] Kingston (see Henry Lord Howard in his Book against Prophecies, chap. 28, fol. 130), it struck to his heart; too late perceiving himself deceived by that father of lies in his homonymous prediction." Fuller's _Church History_. Book v. p. 178. _W._

[192] _where_ for _whereas_.

[193] In the old garbled editions the passage stands thus: "But alas! I am a diseased man, having a fluxe (at which time it was apparent that _he had poisoned himself_); it hath made me very weak," p. 108, edit. 1641. This is a most barefaced and unwarranted interpolation. The words do not occur in any of the MSS. Yet the charge of his having poisoned himself was repeated by many writers among the reformers without scruple. See Tindall's _Works_, p. 404. _Supplications to the Queen's Majesty_, fol. 7. A. D. 1555. Fox's _Acts_, p. 959.

[194] "This is an affecting picture," says a late elegant writer. "Shakspeare had undoubtedly seen these words, his portrait of the sick and dying Cardinal so closely resembling this. But in these words is this chronological difficulty. How is it that Hardwick Hall is spoken of as a house of the Earl of Shrewsbury's in the reign of Henry VIII, when it is well known that the house of this name between Sheffield and Nottingham, in which the Countess of Shrewsbury spent her widowhood, a house described in the Anecdotes of Painting, and seen and admired by every curious traveller in Derbyshire, did not accrue to the possessions of any part of the Shrewsbury family till the marriage of an earl, who was grandson to the cardinal's host, with Elizabeth Hardwick, the widow of Sir William Cavendish, in the time of Queen Elizabeth?--The truth however is, that though the story is told to every visitor of Hardwick Hall, that "the great child of honour, Cardinal Wolsey," slept there a few nights before his death; as is also the story, perhaps equally unfounded, that Mary Queen of Scots was confined there; it was _another_ Hardwick which received the weary traveller for a night in this his last melancholy pilgrimage. This was Hardwick-upon-Line in Nottinghamshire, a place about as far to the south of Mansfield as the Hardwick in Derbyshire, so much better known, is to the north-west. It is now gone to much decay, and is consequently omitted in many maps of the county. It is found in Speed. Here the Earl of Shrewsbury had a house in the time of Wolsey. Leland expressly mentions it. "The Erle [of Shrewsbury] hath a parke and manner place or lodge in it called Hardewike-upon-Line, a four miles from Newstede Abbey." Itin. vol. v. fol. 94, p. 108. Both the Hardwicks became afterwards the property of the Cavendishes. Thoroton tells us that Sir Charles Cavendish, youngest son of Sir William, and father of William Duke of Newcastle, "had begun to build a great house in this lordship, on a hill by the forest side, near Annesly-wood-House, when he was assaulted and wounded by Sir John Stanhope and his men, as he was viewing the work, which was therefore thought fit to be left off, some blood being spilt in the quarrel, then very hot between the two families.--_Thoresby's Edit. of Thoroton_, vol. ii. p. 294."--WHO WROTE CAVENDISH'S LIFE OF WOLSEY? p. 18.

[195] Mr. Douce has pointed out a remarkable passage in Pittscottie's History of Scotland (p. 261, edit. 1788,) in which there is a great resemblance to these pathetic words of the cardinal. James V. imagined that Sir James Hamilton addressed him thus in a dream. "Though I was a sinner against God, I failed not to thee. Had I been as good a servant to the Lord my God as I was to thee, I had not died that death."

[196] In the yeare 1521, the cardinal, by virtue of his legatine authority, issued a mandate to all the bishops in the realme, to take the necessary means for calling in and destroying all books, printed or written, containing any of the errors of Martin Luther: and further directing processes to be instituted against all the possessors and favourers of such books, heresies, &c. The mandate contained also a list of forty-two errors of Luther. See Wilkins's _Concilia_, vol. iii. p. 690-693; and Strype's _Ecclesiastical Memorials_, vol. i. p. 36-40. _W._

[197] To administer the _extreme unction_. "The _fyfth sacrament_ is anoyntynge of seke men, the whiche oyle is halowed of the bysshop, and mynystred by preestes to them that ben of lawfull age, in grete peryll of dethe: in lyghtnes and abatynge of theyr sikenes, yf God wyll that they lyve; and in forgyvynge of theyr venyal synnes, and releasynge of theyr payne, yf they shal deye." _Festival_, fol. 171. _W._

[198] He died Nov. 29, 1530. Le Neve's _Fasti_, p. 310.

According to the superstitious credulity of that age, the death of Wolsey was said to have been preceded by a portentous storm. See LETTERS FROM THE BODLEIAN, Vol. ii. page 17. In a letter from Dr. Tanner to Dr. Charlett, dated Norwich, Aug. 10, 1709, is the following passage:

"On the other side is a coeval note at the end of an old MS. belonging to our cathedral, of the odd exit of the great Cardinal Wolsey, not mentioned, I think, in Cavendish, or any of the ordinary historians,--much like Oliver's wind.

"Anno Xti, 1530, nocte immediate sequente quartum diem Novemb. vehemens ventus quasi per totam Angliam accidebat, et die proximè sequente quinto sc. die ejusdem mensis circa horam primam post meridiem captus erat Dūus Thomas Wulsye Cardinalis in ædibus suis de Cahow [Cawood] infra Diocesam suam Eboracensem; et postea in itinere ejus versus Londoniam vigilia St. Andreæ prox. sequente apud Leycestriam moriebatur, quo die ventus quasi Gehennalis tunc fere per totam Angliam accidebat, cujus vehementia apud Leystoft infra Dioc. Norwicensem et alibi in diversis locis infra Regnum Angliæ multæ naves perierunt."

_Ad finem Annalium Bartholomæi Cotton. MS. in Biblioth. Eccl. Cath. Norwic. habetur hæc notata._

[199] The excellent author of the dissertation on this life doubted whether this passage was not an interpolation, because "Wolsey is spoken of in terms so different from those used in other parts of the book." But it is only a proof of the integrity of the biographer, whose upright heart and devout catholic spirit would not conceal the truth.

[200] This passage follows in the more recent MSS. "riding that same day, being Wednesday, to Northampton; and the next day to Dunstable; and the next day to London; where we tarried untill St. Nicholas Even, and then we rode to Hampton Court."

[201] Here is another addition, in the more recent MSS. to the following effect: "Who hath gotten diverse other rich ornaments into his hands, the which be not rehersed or registered in any of my lords books of inventory, or other writings, whereby any man is able to charge him therewith, but only I."

ADDITIONAL NOTES TO THE LIFE OF WOLSEY.

PAGE 95. The Letter of Anstis, referred to in the note, is addressed to Fiddes, and is printed in his Collections. It relates to a rude representation of the House of Lords in the reign of King Henry VIII. but that learned herald and antiquary has made it the vehicle of some observations, which may not be misplaced here.

"Almost every action of Wolsey hath been interpreted as an instance of pomp, ambition, or insolence; notwithstanding, probably, upon a strict examination, most of them will be found to be strictly precedented. This particular of _two crosses_ gave Polydore Virgil an opportunity of making an uncharitable reflection: "Non contentus unâ cruce, qua utebatur, quod Archiepiscopus esset Eboracensis, alteram præ se ferri voluit, per duos sacerdotes statura elegantes, et equis magnis insidentes, qui aperto capite, quocunque anni tempore incederent. Nunc plane constat Wolsæum suæ sibi conscium esse culpæ, qui propterea binas in pompa habet cruces, quod una non satis foret ad ejus expianda commissa." Anstis then cites the passage from Roy's satire, which he mistakingly attributes to Skelton; and proceeds thus: "Here is a long catalogue, and yet possibly not one particular is singular to the cardinal. For the same honours, according to the known customs of Rome, were to be paid to every Legate _de Latere_ as to the sovereign pontiff himself: Nay, he might of right use all papal ensigns and ornaments, for which Parisius (De Resignat. L. 7. qu. 13. n. 6 et 7) produces the vouchers."

"I know not what was the figure of the _pillars_ here mentioned; but it was not an unusual ensign, because Chaucer, in the Plowman's Tale, v. 2044, setting forth the duty of a clergyman, says thus:

And usin none yerthly honours,
Ne croune, ne curious covertours,
Ne _pillar_, ne other proud pall, &c.

According to the present customs in this country, no one will charge the cardinal's riding on a mule to be a mark of his insolence or haughtiness, neither was it any testimony of his humility, but a usage of his age, in correspondence to the ancient practice of clergymen, who esteemed it unbecoming them to ride upon a horse, when our Saviour rode on the foal of an ass. Thus St. Basil on Psalm 32, _Exclusus est ab usu sanctorum equus_. And here I cannot forbear from diverting you with the odd simplicity of the style wherein Peraldus (Summæ de Superbia, tom. 2) expresses himself on this occasion: "Christus nunquam equitavit, tantum semel asinavit, atque adeo neque mulavit, neque palafredavit, neque dromedariavit." His sentiment was as of some other rigid disciplinarians at that time, that the clergy should travel on foot. It is well known that our judges, till the first year of Queen Mary, rode always to Westminster on mules, (v. Dugdal. Orig. Juridic. p. 38). Christopher Urswicke, who had been Dean of Windsor, in his will made 10 Oct. 1521, devises to Mr. Cuthbert Tunstall, Maister of the Rolls, "his gowne of blacke furred with martron, his typpet of sarcenet furred with sables, and his little _mule_ with saddle and bridle and all hir harneys." (Lib. Mainwaryng, in Cur. Prærog.) And upon the motive of an affected humility it doubtless was that John de Beverle, in his will dated 1380, "Volo quod corpus meum sit ductum ab hospitio meo per duos asinos, si possint inveniri." (Registr. Beckingham Episcopi Lincoln.) The sumptuary law for apparel, 24 Hen. 8. c. 13, prohibits all persons to wear upon their horse, _mule_, or other beast, any silk of purpure, &c. Of the custom of the clergy, see Bede Eccles. Hist. 1. 3, c. 14, and 1. 4, c. 3: and that they first began to ride on mares, 1. 2, c. 13, unless there be some error in the print. As to Cardinals, David Chambre, in his History of the Popes abridged, acquaints us that Innocent IV. gave them liberty to ride on horseback, and that Pope Clement V. ordained they should ride upon asses, according to the example of our Saviour.

But these rich trappings and housings of the cardinal's mule may give offence; herein he could justify himself by an especial privilege to those of his degree:--_Equitare mulas phaleratas, et clavam argenteam ante se deferre_ (Cohelii Notitia Cardinalatus, p. 28). Here then is a poleaxe or mace also, and the same author, p. 30, acquaints us that in the Roman court the cardinals "dum equitant _mulas_, præmittunt apparitores cum argenteis _clavis_ et _bulgis_ ab acupictoribus gentilitiis insignibus auro et argento redimitis, necnon famulos duos pedissequos (parafrænarios vocant) baculis duobus innixos."

Page 137. The circumstances attending the interception of De Praet's dispatches, mentioned in the note, are thus related in a letter of Wolsey's to Mr. Sampson, printed in the Appendix to Galt's Life of Wolsey, p. clv. No. vi. 4to. 1812.

"It hath bene of a long season, and from sundry parts, reported unto the king's hignes and to me at divers times, that Mon^{sr} de Praet, who resideth here ambassador for the emperor, hath continually bene a man disposed and inclined to make, in his letters and writings, both to the emperor and the Lady Margaret, seditious and sinister reports; saying many times, upon his own fantasie, suspicion, and conjecture, things clearly untrue, and compassing at other times, when things have been done, sayd, or set forth, frendly, kindlie, and lovinglie, soe to cowch his reports, and the circumstances of the doings thereof, as though the gratuities shewed by the king's highnes, have from time to time been conduced by the industrie, pollicy, and labour of the sayd ambassadors; ascribing, therefore, the laude and thank therof unto himself, wherby he might acquire the more grace and favor of the sayd emperor and Lady Margaret. To these things the kings highnes and I were not over hasty to give soone creddence; but supposing the sayd ambassador to be a p^rsonage of more vertue and inclinacion to good then now he proveth to be, I would some times admonish him, in general words of such advertisement; exhorting and advising him to be well ware how he, being a minister betwene two princes so neerly conjoined in intelligence, should attempt or doe any thing to the hinderance thereof; but rather, regarding the office of a good ambassador to doe that in him is for the nourishing and increase of the same. Wherein he alwayes made me such answere that I conceaved noe further suspicion or jealousy towards him in that behalfe; being therefore the more franke and plaine with him in all my conferences, as he, that for the singuler good mind which I have alwayes borne unto the emperors honor, weale, and suretie, would procede with his majestie, sincerelie, plainely, and truelie. And as familiarly, kindly, and lovinglie hath the kings highnes and I admitted, entertayned, and used the sayd de Praet at all times, as the most hearty love betwene the kings highnes and his majestie doth require, making him privie, and having him present, at all such comunicacions and accesses have bene of other princes ambassadors, or of any matter worthy advertisement or knowledge, to the intent that he should make most credible and plaine relacion thereof unto th'emperor and other to whom it appertained."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * He then relates, that upon one occasion he sent for the ambassador "to make him participant of such newes as the kings highnes and I had received, as also to understand whether he had any good newes in confirmation of the same." And after a long communication, he "seeming to be joyous and well contented, giving me thanks on the emperors behalfe, departed."

"Three days before that, as many times is here accustomed, it was appointed that, as that night following, which was the xj^{th} day at night, a privie watch should be made in London, and by a certaine cercoute and space about it: in the which watch was taken, passing between London and Brainford, by certaine of the watch appointed to that quarter, one ryding towards the said Brainford; who, examined by the watch, answered soe closely, that upon suspicion thereof they searched him, and found seacretly hid about him a little pacquet of letters, subscribed in French, which the sayd watch p^rceaving, brought the letters unto a man of lawes clarke, being of the same company; who, supposing the bearer of them to be either a spie or a messenger from some merchant, stranger, or other, intendinge to disclose things unto the emperor, and p^rceaving the sayd pacquet to be in the taking of it, by the unlearned men of the watch, broken and evil handled, looked in the letters. And thinking the same, by reason of the ciphers, more suspect, brought it unto the king's solicitor, being in the same watch; who not acquainted with the name of the sayd de Praet, brought the letters soe opened unto Sir Thomas Moore, being in another watch neere unto the same; and he presented them, in the morning following, unto me, being in the chancery at Westminster; which, when I had read, knowing how farr the effect of them was discrepant from the truth, anon I conceived the former adv^rtisements made unto me touching the said ambassadors accustomed usage in making sinister reports, to be true. And p^rceyving by the sayd letters, that albeit the usage is not here that strangers should passe through the realme without a passport, yet one of the foulkes was depeched by the sayd ambassador the day before with letters towards Spaine,--wherin it was like there might be as evill or worse report then in these, I with all diligence sent to countermande the sayd former letters, or any other depeched at that time by the sayd ambassador. And soe was taken also a pacquet of his letters directed to my Lady Margaret, which original letters directed unto th'emperor, with copies of those addressed unto my Lady Margaret, viewed and overlooked, and the untruth mencioned in them deprehended, I send unto your hands herewith, as well because th'emperor may know such things as his folkes on this side doe advertise his majestie of, which may conferr to the furtherance of his affaires; as also, because the same may hereby the more assuredlie and p^rfectlie understand and p^rceave that the sayd de Praet hath of lykelyhood contrived noe few matters untrue and fayned in his letters sent of a long season, as well into Spayne as into Flanders. Wherof there is much apparance, by reason of such proceeding, strange demeanour, and suspicion, as hath seemed to have bene had towards the kings grace, both on that side and in Flanders of a good season, soe that it is evident to be conjectured that the sayd de Praet hath done more hurt, detriment, and damage, by his evil reports in the comon affaires, then ever he can be able to reduble or amend; and surely has by the same deserved much more blame than I will reherse." He then enters into detail of the misrepresentations of De Praet, who, he says, would have long since been denounced to the emperor as "a man of insufficient qualities, inexpert and far unmeet to be ambassador from so great a prince," had it not been out of courtesy to that potentate and his council. And further, that "De Praet being not a little abashed, ne without cause, made first exception at the intercepting of his letters, as he would not give credence to the manner of their interception, and the opening of them by a fortunate error, as is aforesayd, saying that ambassadors doe write unto their princes that which in their conceipt is thought good, referring the judgment unto others. He affirmed also, that till this time it could not ne should be ever found in any of his letters, that he hath made evill report either of the king's highnes or of me, as by his original letters, which he sayd he desired and would be gladd should and might be showed, he would be judged, and that the cause and occasion moving him thus to write at this time, was only the being here of John Joachym by viij moneths, the difficulty made to condescend unto the truce proposed at Rome, the not advancing of an army on this side, as was spoken of, and the refusal of the kings highnes to contribute any thing to the defence of Italy."

To this Wolsey states the long and circumstantial answer he gave, in which he asserts that he was not privy to Joachinos coming, and that it was some time after his arrival that he disclosed to him what he was, and that as soon as he discovered himself to be sent from the Lady Regent, he made de Praet privy thereto, praying him to advertise the Lady Margaret and the emperor, as he also would do and did.

To this he states 'that De Praet could make no other answer than that he wrote his fantasy, and remitted the judgment to wiser men.' The whole letter is well worth attention as an example of Wolsey's talent in diplomacy; and though his apology is not very convincing, it must be confessed to be very skilful and ingenious.

FINIS.