More still, he had a pension1 from the French king and from the emperor, to say nothing of the wealthy abbeys the revenues of which he seized. But what is yet more important is this, the king himself was utterly in his power, ordering all things at his good pleasure.

And as if all this was too little for him, moved by Satan, he aimed at the first see in the Church, the throne of the sovereign Pontiff. When the emperor, Charles V., saw this, he began to flatter the man, and thereby make his folly minister to his own designs; so he wrote to him often, and always with his own hand, subscribing himself, "Your son and cousin,3 Charles." Moreover, he gave Wolsey great hopes of the Papacy whenever Leo X. died, if he could persuade the king to enter into a perpetual league with the emperor, and to declare war upon the king of France. Wolsey performed his part of the bargain most readily; but the emperor was so far from fulfilling his part that he laboured, to his great praise, to secure the election of Adrian VI. Wolsey, thinking it

besides pensions from the emperor and the king of France. On his relinquishment of Durham, the king gave the revenues of that see for one year to Anne Boleyn. Angl. Sacr., vol. i. p. 782.

1 The French pension was twelve thousand livres Tournois. That of the emperor was three thousand livres, counted in Flemish money, granted in the year 1517; and again, in 1520, was increased by two further pensions of five thousand and two thousand ducats. He also had a pension of ten thousand ducats from the duke of Milan. See Fiddes, Life of Cardinal Wolsey, Collections, pp. 12, 43, 46.

2 Stow, p. 514. "Pope Leo died this year, whereupon Dr. Pace, dean

4

of Paul's, was sent to Rome to make friends in the behalf of Cardinal Wolsey, who was brought into a vain hope, through the king's favour and furtherance, to be elected Pope. But Adrian VI. was chosen before Dr. Pace could come to Rome, and so that suit was dashed."

3 A contemporary Life of Wolsey in the Vatican, published by Pocock, Records, ii. 89, contains these words: "Carolus Cæsar diu litteras aliter quam manu sua scriptas non dedit, in quibus se 'filium' subscribebat.”

Leo X. died Dec. 1, 1521, and Adrian VI. was elected Jan. 9, 1522, who dying Sept. 14, 1523, was succeeded by Clement VII., elected Nov. 19, 1523.

2

better to hide his disappointment, waited for Adrian's death. But even then, when Adrian died, the emperor forgot the Cardinal;1 and besides, having made Francis a prisoner at the battle of Pavia, and receiving his two sons as hostages, he wrote but seldom to the Cardinal; and when he did, the letters were no longer written by himself, and ended simply with the word "Charles." Wolsey on seeing this did not conceal his rage; he opposed the emperor with all his might, took the side of his enemies, and became a thorough partisan of the most Christian king.3

1 Cardinal Wolsey's instructions sent with the approval of the king to the king's ambassadors in Rome (Burnet, v. p. 289, ed. Pocock) show how ready he was to accept the Papacy. He says "that the mind and intention of the king's highness, and of me both, is to put our helps and furtherance, as much as conveniently may be, that such a successor unto him [Adrian VI.] may now by the holy College of Cardinals be named and elected, as may, with God's grace, &c.

Ye shall understand that the mind and entire desire of his highness, above all earthly things, is that I should attain to the said dignity [of Pope]."... Then the Cardinal tells the agents that they were to solicit the Cardinals "by secret labours, alleging and declaring unto them my poor qualities, and how I, having so great experience of the causes of Christendom, not lacking, thanked be God, either substance or liberality to look largely upon my friends; besides, the sundry great promotions which by election of me should be vacant, to be disposed unto such of the said cardinals, as by their true and fast friendship had deserved the same." These agents in Rome, one of them being himself a bishop, Clerk of Bath and Wells, had "ample authority to bind and promise on

the king's behalf, as well gift of
promotions, as also as large sums
of money to as many and such as
ye shall think convenient."
Lastly, Wolsey writes himself with
his own hand to the bishop, that he
must be "not sparing any reasonable
offers, which is a thing that amongst
so many needy persons is more re-
garded, than percase the qualities
of the person: ye be wise, and ye
wot what I mean. The king
willeth you neither to spare his
authority, or his good money or
substance."

...

2 The battle of Pavia was fought Feb. 25, 1525.

3 Tyndale, Practice of Prelates, p. 321, ed. Parker Soc. "As soon as the Pope was taken, the Cardinal wrote unto the emperor that he should make him Pope. And when he had got an answer that pleased him not, but according to his deservings toward the emperor, then he waxed furious mad, and sought all means to displease the emperor, and imagined this divorcement between the king and the queen, and wrote sharply unto the emperor with menacing letters, that if he would not make him Pope, he would make such ruffling between Christian princes as was not this hundred years, to make the emperor repent-yea, though it should cost the whole realm of England.”

2

Burning with wrath at the emperor's conduct, and seeing that the king was becoming more and more estranged from Catherine, and that his own ambitious temper was extremely offensive to the latter, he resolved to bring about the divorce of the king and queen. He considered that it would be advantageous to himself, not unpleasing to the king, hateful to Catherine, and most disagreeable to the emperor to see his aunt divorced.' He sends for John Longland, the confessor of Henry VIII., and tells him how very much he thought of the king's salvation. He could not be silent. any longer about a matter of such grave importance, nor did he think it right to speak of it to any one before he spoke to the king's confessor, who knew well all the secrets of the king. At last he spoke out, saying that he did not think the king's marriage was valid, and gave many reasons for his opinion. Longland thought the man was sincere in what he said, and did not venture to contradict him on account of his rank. He knew also that a divorce would not be disagreeable to the king, and so he answered merely that it was but just that a matter of so much importance should not be made known to the king by anybody but Wolsey him

1 The emperor, in his answer to Clarencieux (Le Grand, iii. 46), says that the divorce was the work of Wolsey, "who, out of greed and ambition, and because the emperor would not use his army in Italy to make him Pope by violence-ac cording to the request made by Henry VIII., and by him in letters written by himself-and thereby satisfy his vanity, ambition, and greed, has often boasted that he would so embroil the emperor's affairs as to surpass any troubles known for a hundred years, even at the cost of the ruin of England." Thus the information possessed by

Tyndale-in the foregoing note-is not inexact.

2 John Longland was educated at Magdalene College, Oxford, and became one of the prebendaries of Lincoln in 1514. În 1517 he was dean of Salisbury, and canon of Windsor in April 1519. He was consecrated bishop of Lincoln at Lambeth May 5, 1521, by the archbishop, William Warham; and on the death of that prelate, succeeded him as chancellor of Oxford. He was with Cranmer at Dunstable when the latter, against law, pronounced the sentence of divorce.

self. Wolsey undertook to do so; and the king, as soon as he saw what he had come to speak about, interrupted him and said, "Beware of disturbing settled questions."

1

Three days afterwards Wolsey took Longland with him to see the king, but Longland merely begged the king to let the matter be examined. Then, as the king did not refuse this, Wolsey broke in and said that there was a woman of great beauty and nobleness in France, Margaret, sister of the most Christian king, formerly married to the duke of Alençon, and a fitting bride for the king. "We will speak of this hereafter," said Henry; "now silence is necessary above all things, lest the matter be bruited abroad before everything is ready, and leave a stain on our honour," for he knew well whom he should marry if he could once put queen Catherine out of the way.

1 Harpsfield, Treatise, &c., bk. ii. p. 93, says that all this began with Cardinal Wolsey, "who first by himself, or by John Longland, bishop of Lincoln, and the king's confessor, put this scruple and doubt in his head. At the first hearing whereof, the king, somewhat astonished, held his peace awhile, not a little marvelling at this matter so moved unto him. At length he answered thus: Take heed, I beseech you, reverend father, and well consider what a great and weighty

enterprise you take now in hand.' And speaking much in the commendation of his wife, said that his marriage was allowed by the most learned and virtuous bishops of the realms of England and Spain, and confirmed also by the Pope's authority."

2 Polydori Vergil., lib. xxvii. p. 685. At triduo post, Volsæus incredibili armatus audacia Lincolniensem convenit eumque ducit ad regem."

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CHAPTER IV.

THE DIVORCE RESOLVED ON-THE BISHOP OF TARBES-THE CARDINAL SENT AS AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE -ANNE BOLEYN.

THE king having obtained a promise of secrecy, gave his whole mind to the divorce. He read and re-read, and compared together, with certain theologians, those passages of Scripture, especially those in Leviticus and Deuteronomium, which he thought most to the purpose. He also examined minutely the Brief of Julius II. issued in confirmation of his marriage with the queen. But after spending nearly a year in this secret examination of the question, he could find nothing for his purpose in the sacred writings, not a flaw in the Pontifical Brief. More than this, if he thought he had found anything amiss in the Brief of the Pope, he was met by another Brief obtained by king Ferdinand, in which the matter was more clearly and more distinctly expressed,' and so he and those whom he consulted came to the conclusion that the matter could be carried no further.

1 The two Briefs have the same date-Dec. 26, 1503; and both may be seen in Burnet, Hist. Ref., iv. 15, 61, ed. Pocock. But it was pretended in England during the trial that the second Brief was a forgery, and that there was no trace of it to be found in the archives of the State. That pretence was a pretence; for a copy of it had been brought over to England by order of the Pope, and

there is a letter in the Record Office of Sylvester de Gigliis, bishop of Worcester, to Henry VII., in which it is stated that the second Brief was issued for the consolation of queen Isabella, then upon her deathbed. See Letters and Papers, illustrative of the reigns of Richard III. and Henry VII., vol. i. p. 243. Publications of the Master of the Rolls.

B