he called the legantine court; and as he was now, by CHAP. means of the pope's commiffion and the king's favour, XXVIII. invefted with all power, both ecclefiaftical and civil, no man knew what bounds were to be fet to the authority of 1518. this new tribunal. He conferred on it a kind of inquifitorial and cenforial powers even over the laiety, and directed it to examine into all matters of confcience; into all condu& which had given scandal; into all actions, which, though they efcaped the law, might appear contrary to good morals. Offence was juftly taken at this commiffion, which was really unbounded; and the people were the more difgufted, when they faw a man, who indulged himself in the licenses of pleasure, so severe in repreffing the least appearance of immorality in others. But to render his court more obnoxious, Wolfey made one John Allen judge in it, a person of scandalous life ", whom he himself, as chancellor, had condemned for perjury: And as this man either exacted fines from every one whom he was pleased to find guilty, or took bribes to drop profecutions, men concluded, and with fome appearance of reason, that he fhared with the cardinal thefe wages of iniquity. The clergy, and in particular the monks, were expofed to this tyranny; and as the libertinism of their lives often gave a just handle against them, they were obliged to buy an indemnity, by paying large fums of money to the legate or his judge. Not contented with this authority, Wolfey pretended, by virtue of his commiffion, to affume the power of all the bishops' courts; particularly that of judging of Wills and Teftaments; and his decifions in these important points were deemed not a little arbitrary. As if he himfelf were pope, and as if the pope could difpofe absolutely of every ecclefiaftical establishment, he prefented to whatever priories or benefices he pleafed, without regard to the right of election in the monks, or of patronage in the nobility and gentry W.

No

U Strype's Memorials, vol. i. p. 125. w Polydore Virgil, lib. 27. This whole narration has been copied by all the hiftorians from the author here cited: There are many circumftances, however, very fufpicious, both because of the obvious partiality of the hiftorian, and because the parliament, when they afterwards examined Wolfey's conduct, could find no proof of any material crime he had committed.

CHAP.

1519.

No one durft carry to the king any complaint against XVIII. these ufurpations of Wolfey, till Warham ventured to inform him of the difcontents of his people. Henry profeffed his ignorance of the whole matter. "A man," faid he," is not fo blind any where as in his own house: "But do you, father," added he, to the primate, "go "to Wolley, and tell him, if any thing be amifs that "he amend it." A reproof of this kind was not likely to be effectual: It only ferved to augment Wolfey's enmity to Warham: But one London having profecuted Allen, the legate's judge, in a court of law, and having convicted him of malverfation and iniquity, the clamour at laft reached the king's ears; and he expreffed fuch difpleasure to the cardinal, as made him ever after more cautious in exerting his authority X.

WHILE Henry, indulging himself in pleasure and amusement, entrusted the government of his kingdom to this imperious minifter, an incident happened abroad, 12th Jan. which excited his attention. Maximilian the emperor Death of died, a man, who, of himself, was indeed of little conthe empe- fequence; but as his death left vacant the first station ror Maxi- among christian princes, it put all mens fpirits in agitation, milian.

and proved a kind of æra in the general fyftem of Europe. The kings of France and Spain immediately declared themselves candidates for the imperial crown; and employed every expedient of money or intrigue, which promifed them fuccefs in fo great a point of ambition. Henry also was encouraged to put in his pretenfions; but his minifter, Pace, who was difpatched to the electors, found that he began to folicit too late, and that the votes of all these princes were already pre-engaged either on one fide or the other.

FRANCIS and Charles made profeffion from the beginning of carrying on this rivalship with emulation, but without enmity; and Francis in particular declared, that his brother Charles and he were fairly and openly fuitors to the fame miftrefs: The more fortunate, added he,

will

x This year and the foregoing the fweating ficknefs raged anew in England. It was called Sudor Anglicus, becaufe few, except the English nation, were attacked by it. Its malignity was fuch, that it commonly killed within three hours of its commencement. Some towns loft by it an half, others two thirds of their inhabitants.

will carry her; and the other must reft contented M. But CHA P. all men apprehended, that this extreme moderation, XXVIII. however reasonable, would not be of long duration; and that incidents would certainly occur to fharpen the minds 1519. of the candidates against each other. It was Charles who Charles, at laft prevailed, to the great difappointment of the king of French monarch, who ftill continued to the laft in the Spain, belief, that the majority of the electoral college was en- chofen gaged in his favour. And as he was fome years fuperior emperor. in age to his rival, and, after his victory at Marignan, and conquest of the Milanefe, much fuperior in renown, he could not fupprefs his indignation, at being thus, in the face of all mankind, after long and anxious expectation, poftponed in fo important a pretenfion. From this competition, as much as from oppofition of interests, arofe that emulation between those two great monarchs, which, while it kept their whole age in movement, fets them in fo remarkable a contrast to each other: Both of them princes endowed with talents and abilities; brave, afpiring, active, induftrious; beloved by their fervants and fubjects, dreaded by their enemies, and refpe&ted by all the world: Francis, open, frank, liberal, munificent, carrying thefe virtues to an excefs which prejudiced his affairs: Charles, political, clofe, artificial, frugal; better qualified to obtain fuccefs in wars and in negotiations, especially the latter. The one, the more amiable man; the other, the greater monarch. The king, from his overfights and indifcretions, naturally expofed to misfortunes; but qualified, by his spirit and magnanimity, to extricate himself from them with honour: The emperor, by his defigning, interefted character, fitted, in his greateft fucceffes, to excite jealoufy and oppofition even among his allies, and to rouze up a multitude of enemies, in the place of one whom he had fubdued. And as the perfonal qualities of these princes thus counterpoised each other, fo did the advantages and difadvantages of their dominions. Fortune alone, without the concurrence of prudence or valour, never reared up of a sudden fo great a power as that which centered in the emperor Charles. He reaped the fucceffion of Caftile, of Arragon, of Auria, of Burgundy: He inherited the conquest of Naples, of Granada: Election entitled him to the emVOL. IV.

C

Belcario, lib. 16. Guicciardin, lib. 13.

pire:

CHA P. pire: Even the bounds of the globe feemed to be enlarged XXVIII. a little before his time, that he might poffefs the whole

treasure, as yet entire and unrifled, of the new world, 1519% But though the concurrence of all thefe advantages formed an empire, greater and more extenfive than any known in Europe fince that of the Romans, the kingdom of France alone, being clofe, compa&t, united, rich, populous, and being interpofed between all the provinces of Charles's dominions, was able to make a vigorous oppofition to his progress, and maintain the contest against him.

cis at Calais.

HENRY poffeffed that felicity, of being able, both by the native force of his kingdom and its fituation, to hold the balance between thofe two powers; and had he known to improve, by policy and prudence, this fingular and ineftimable advantage, he was really, by means of it, a greater prince than either of thofe mighty monarchs, who feemed to ftrive for the dominion of Europe. But this king was in his character heedlefs, inconfiderate, capricious, impolitic; guided by his paffions or his favourite vain, imperious, haughty; fometimes actuated by friendship for foreign powers, oftner by refentment, feldom by his true intereft. And thus, though he triumphed in that fuperiority which his fituation in Europe gave him, he never employed it to his own effential and durable advantage, or that of his kingdom.

FRANCIS was well acquainted with Henry's character, and endeavoured to accommodate his conduct to it. He folicited an interview near Calais; in expectation of Interview being able, by familiar converfation, to gain upon his between friendship and confidence. Wolfey earnestly feconded Henry this propofal; and hoped, in the prefence of both courts, and Fran- to make parade of his riches, his fplendor, and his influence over both monarchs N. And as Henry himself loved pomp and magnificence, and had entertained a curiofity of being perfonally acquainted with the French King, he very chearfully adjusted all the preliminaries of this interview. The nobility of both nations ftrove to furpaís each other in pomp and expence: Many of them involved themselves in large debts, and were not able, by the penury of their whole lives, to repair the vain fplendor of a few days. The duke of Buckingham, who, though very rich, was fomewhat addicted to frugality, finding

N Polydore Virgil, lib. 27.

the

the preparations for this feftival amount to immense sums; C H A P. threw out fome expreffions of displeasure against the car- XXVIII. dinal, whom he believed the author of that measure°: An imprudence which was not forgot by that minister.

1520.

WHILE Henry was preparing to depart for Calais, he The emwas furprized to hear that the emperor was arrived at peror. Dover; and he immediately haftened thither with the Charles queen, in order to give a fuitable reception to his royal arrives in gueft. That great prince, politic though young, having England. heard of the intended interview between Francis and 25th of May. Henry, was apprehenfive of the confequences, and was refolved to take the opportunity, in his paffage from Spain to the Low Countries, to make the king still a higher compliment, by paying him a vifit in his own dominions. Befides the marks of regard and attachment which he gave to Henry, he Arove by every teftimony of friendship, by flatteries, proteftations, promises and prefents, to gain on the vanity, the avarice, and the am bition of the cardinal. He here inftilled into this afpiring prelate the hope of attaining the papacy; and as that was the fole point of elevation, beyond his prefent greatnefs, it was fure to attract his wishes with the fame ardour, as if fortune had never, as yet, favoured him with any of her prefents. In confidence of reaching this dignity by the emperor's affiftance, he fecretly devoted himfelf to that monarch's interefts; and Charles was perhaps the more liberal of his promises, because Leo was a very young man; and it was not likely, that, for many years, he would be called upon to fulfil his engagements. Henry easily obferved this courtship paid to his minifter; but instead of taking umbrage at it, he only made it a fubject of vanity; and believed, that, as Wolfey's fole fupport was his favour, the obeisance of fuch mighty monarchs to his fervant, was in reality a more confpicu ous homage to his own grandeur.

THE day of Charles's departure, Henry went over 30th of to Calais with the queen and his whole court; and from May. thence proceeded to Guifnes, a fmall town near the frontiers. Francis, attended in like manner, came to Ardres, a few miles diftant; and the two monarchs met, for the first time, in the fields, at a place fituate between these two towns, but ftill within the English pale: For Francis agreed

C 2

Ibid. lib. xxvii. Herbert. Holingfhed, p. 855.