CHA P. finish the trial; but, though they employed the fame enXXX. gines of promifes and menaces, the objects, which they

could fet before the pope, were not fo instant nor imme1529. diate as thofe which were held up to him by the emperor. The dread of lofing England, and of fortifying the Lutherans by fo confiderable an acceffion, made small impreffion on Clement's mind, in comparison of the anxiety for his own perfonal fafety, and the fond defire of restoring the Medicis to their dominion in Florence. So foon, therefore, as he had adjusted all terms with the emperor, he laid hold of the pretence of juftice, which required him, be faid, to pay regard to the queen's appeal; and fufpending the commiffion of the legates, he evoked the cause to Rome. Campeggio had beforehand received private orders, delivered by Campana, to burn the decretal bull, with which he was intrusted.

WOLSEY had long forefeen this measure as the fure forerunner of his own ruin. Though he had at first defired, that the king should rather marry a French princess than Anne Boleyn, he had employed himself, with the utmost affiduity and earnestnefs, to bring the affair to an happy iffue: He was not therefore to be blamed for the unprofperous event, which the pope's partiality had produced. But he had fufficient experience of the extreme ardour and impatience of Henry's temper, who could bear no contradiction, and who was wont, without examination or diftinction, to make his minifters answerable for the iffue of thofe tranfa&tions, with which they were entrusted. Anne Boleyn alfo, who was prepoffeffed against him, had imputed to him the failure of her hopes; and as the was newly returned to court, whence the had been removed, from a regard to decency, during the trial before the legates, fhe had naturally acquired an additional influence on Henry's mind, and the ferved much to fortify his prejudices against the cardinal K. Even the queen and her partizans, judging of Wolfey by the part which he had openly acted, had expreffed the highest animofity against him; and the moft oppofite factions feemed now to combine in the ruin of this haughty minifThe high opinion itself, which Henry had entertained of the cardinal's capacity, tended to haften his downfal;

ter.

Burnet, vol. i. 75.

I Collier, vol. ii. p. 45. Burnet,

.vol. i. p. 53. * Cavendish, p. 40.

XXX.

downfall; while he imputed the bad fuccefs of that minif- CHA P. ter's undertakings, not to ill fortune or to mistake, but to the malignity or infidelity of his intentions. The blow, however, fell not inftantly on his head. The king, who 1529. probably could not justify by any good reafon his alienation from his antient favourite, seems to have remained fome time in fufpence, and he received him, if not with all his former kindnefs, at least with the appearance of truft and regard.

BUT it is found almost impoffible for a high confidence Wolfey's and affection to receive the leaft diminution, without fink- fall. ing into abfolute indifference, or even running into the oppofite extreme.

The king now determined to bring on the ruin of the cardinal with a motion almost as precipitate as he had formerly employed in his elevation. The dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk were fent to require the great feal from him; and on his fcrupling to deliver it L, 18th Oct. without a more express warrant, Henry wrote him a letter, upon which it was furrendered, and was delivered by the king to Sir Thomas More, a man, who, befides the ornaments of an elegant literature, poffeffed the higheft virtue, integrity and capacity.

WOLSEY was ordered to depart from York-Place, a palace which he had built in London, and which, though it really belonged to the fee of York, was feized by Henry, and became afterwards the refidence of the kings of England, under the title of Whitehall. All his furniture and plate were converted to the king's ufe. Their riches and fplendour befitted rather a royal than a private fortune. The walls of his palace were covered with cloth of gold or cloth of filver: He had a cupboard of plate of maffy gold: There were found a thousand pieces of fine holland belonging to him. The rest of his riches and furniture was in proportion; and his opulence was probably no fmall inducement to this violent perfecution against him.

THE cardinal was ordered to retire to Asher, a country seat which he poffeffed near Hampton-Court, The world, who had paid him fuch abject court during his profperity, now entirely deserted him, on this fatal reverse of all his fortunes. He himself was much dejected with the change; and from the fame turn of mind, which had made him be fo vainly elated with his grandeur, he felt VOL. IV.

G

L Cavendish, p. 41.

the

CHAP. the stroke of adverfity with double rigour M. The fmallXXX. eft appearance of his return to favour threw him into

transports of joy, unbecoming a man. The king had 1529. feemed willing, during fome time, to intermit the blows, which overwhelmed him. He granted him his proteЯion, and left him in poffeffion of the fees of York and Winchefter. He even fent him a gracious meffage, accompanied with a ring, as a teftimony of his affection. Wolfey, who was on horfeback when the meffenger met him, immediately alighted; and throwing himfelf on his knees in the mire, received in that humble pofture these marks of his majefty's gracious difpofition towards him N.

BUT his enemies, who dreaded his return to court, never ceased plying the king with accounts of his several offences; and Anne Boleyn in particular, who bore him no kindness, cóntributed her endeavours, in conjunction with her uncle the duke of Norfolk, to exclude him from all hopes of ever being reinftated in his former authority. He difmiffed therefore his numerous retinue; and as he was a kind and beneficent mafter, the feparation paffed not without a plentiful effufion of tears on both fides o. The king's heart, notwithstanding fome gleams of kindnefs, feemed now totally hardened againft his old favourite. He ordered him to be indicted in the Star Chamber, where a sentence was paffed upon him. And not contented with this feverity, he abandoned him to all the rigour of the Parliament, which now, after a long interval, was again affembled. The house of lords voted a long charge against Wolfey, confifting of forty-four articles; and accompanied it with an application to the king for his punishment, and his removal from all authority. Little opposition was made to this charge in the upper houfe: No evidence of any part of it was so much as called for; and as it confifts chiefly of general accuNovemb. fations, it was fcarce fufceptible of any P. The articles

M

Strype, vol. 1.

were

P. 114, 115. App. No 31, &c. N Stowe, p. 547: Cavendish. Stowe, p. 549. P The first article of the charge against the cardinal is his procuring the legantine power, which, however, as it was certainly done with the king's confent and permiffion, could be nowife criminal. Many of the other articles alfo regard the mere exercise of that power. Some articles impute to him as rimes, particular actions, which were natural or unavoidable

to

were fent down to the house of commons; where Tho- CHAP. mas Cromwel, formerly a fervant of the cardinal, and XXX. who had been raised by him from a very low ftation, defended his unfortunate patron with fuch fpirit, generofity, 1529. courage, as acquired him great honour, and laid the foundation of that favour, which he afterwards enjoyed with the king.

and

WOLSEY'S enemies, finding that either his innocence or his caution prevented them from having any just ground of accufing him, had recourse to a very extraordinary expedient. An indictment was lodged against him, that, contrary to a ftatute of Richard the fecond, commonly called the ftatute of provifors, he had procured bulls from Rome, particularly that investing him with the legantine power, which he had exercised with very extenfive authority. He confeffed the indictment, pleaded ignorance of the statute, and threw himfelf on the King's mercy. He was perhaps within reach of the law; but befides that this ftatute had fallen altogether into difufe, nothing could be more rigorous and severe than to impute

to any man, that was prime minifter with fo unlimited an authority; fuch as receiving firft all letters from the king's minifters abroad, receiving firft all vifits from foreign ministers, defiring that all applications fhould be made thro' him. He was alfo accused of naming hitmfelf with the king, as if he had been his fellow, the king and I. It is reported that fometimes he even put his own name before the king's, ego et rex meus. But this mode of expreffion is juftified by the Latin idiom. It is remarkable, that his whispering in the king's ear, knowing himself to be affected with venereal diftempers, is an article against him. Many of the charges are general and incapable of proof. Lord Herbert goes fo far as to affirm, that no man ever fell from fo high a ftation, who had fo few real crimes objected to him. This opinion is perhaps too favourable to the cardinal. Yet the refutation of the articles by Cromwel, and their being rejected by a house of commons even in this arbitrary reign, is almost a demonftration of Wolfey's innocence. Henry was, no doubt, entirely bent on his destruction, when, on his failure by a parliamentary impeachment, he attacked upon the ftatute of provifors, which afforded him fo little jult hold on that minifter. For that this indictment was fubfequent to the attack in parliament, appears by Cavendish's life of Wolfey, Stowe, p. 551, and more certainly by the very articles of impeachment themselves. Parliamentary History, vol. iii. p. 42. article 7. Coke's Inft. p. 4. fol. 89.

him

CHA P.to him as a crime, what he had openly, during a courfe XXX. of fo many years, practifed with the consent and appro

bation of the king, and the acquiefcence of the parliament 1529. and kingdom. Not to mention, what he always afferted

Com

mence

, and what we can scarce doubt of, that he had obtained the royal licence in the most formal manner, which, had he not been apprehenfive of the dangers attending any oppofition to Henry's lawlefs will, he might have pleaded in his own defence before the judges. Sentence, however, was pronounced against him, "That "he was out of the king's protection; his lands and "goods forfeited, and that his perfon might be commit"ted to cuftody." But this profecution of Wolfey, tho' it was not difagreeable to Henry, was carried no farther. He even granted him a pardon for all offences; restored him part of his plate and furniture; and still continued, from time to time, to drop expreffions of favour and compaffion towards him.

THE Complaints against the ufurpations of the ecclefiaftics had been very antient in England, as well as in ment of most other European kingdoms; and as this topic was the refor now become popular every where, it had paved the way mation in for the Lutheran tenets, and reconciled the people, in England. fome measure, to the frightful idea of herefy and innovation. The commons, finding the occafion favourable, paffed feveral bills, reftraining the impofitions of the clergy; one for regulating of mortuaries; another against the exactions for the probates of wills R; a third against non-refidence and pluralities, and against churchmen's being farmers of land. But what appeared chiefly dangerous to the ecclefiaftical order, were the fevere invectives, thrown out, almoft without oppofition, in the house, against the diffoluteness of the priests, their ambition, their avarice, and their endless encroachments on the laity. Lord Herbert has even preferved the fpeech of a gentleman of Gray's-Inn, which is of a very fingular nature, and contains fuch topics as we should little expect to meet with during that period. The member infifts upon the vaft variety of theological opinions, which prevailed in different

Cavendish, p. 72.

R These exactions are quite arbitrary, and had rifen to a great height. A member faid in the house, that a thousand marks had been exacted from him on that account. Hall, fol. 188. Strype, vol. i. p. 73.

$ P.

293.