НАМ, The king WAR- ceeding no faster. And upon this last adjournment, the duke Abp. Cant. of Suffolk, by the king's order, complained of the usage: and being a person of a warm temper, delivered himself in rugged much dis- language. Wolsey told him, he had no reason to be angry, satisfied with the proceed- nor to charge him with misbehaviour, that he had given the duke no provocation; that he owed his life to him; and therefore, should have treated them with more regard; that he acted under the pope's authority; and that it was not in his power to proceed to sentence, without knowing his holiness's pleasure. ings of the legates. Cavend. p. 126. While the matter rested, the king went a progress, to shake off his spleen, and relieve him under his disappointment. For as yet, he did not wholly despair of seeing the cause decided by the legates but when the avocation was declared, these hopes vanished. To clench the matter, the pope sent an inhi bition to stop the proceedings of the legates, which was delivered in the beginning of September, and privately executed upon the legates. By this instrument, those who abetted the carrying on the process were liable to the censures of the Church. The king a brief pope therefore, to prevent the king's resentment, sent him a brief to exempt him from the penalties of the inhibition. Soon after this, cardinal Campegio was recalled; took his leave of the king, and left England. It was said, cardinal Wolsey had lodged a vast sum of money with him, to be carried off. Upon this, the king ordered Campegio's equipage to be searched at Calais; where nothing was found upon him, excepting the present he had received from the king. The pope sends the to exempt him from the inhibition. Ld. Herbert, P. 255. Cavend, To go back a little: before the last adjournment of the legate's court, the king was displeased with Wolsey; possibly it might be, because he thought him too dilatory and passive in the exercise of his commission: that he resigned too far to Campegio, and did not push for a sentence with the vigour expected. It is certain, the king was uneasy at the delays, sent for Wolsey to Bridewell, and gave him a warm reprimand, Id. 119. p. as the cardinal confessed to the bishop of Carlisle. The same day the cardinal was ordered to wait upon the queen with Campegio. Their business was, to try if they could prevail with her to drop the contest, and give way to the divorce. The queen told them, she was not prepared to answer a question of that importance, and so that message miscarried. The two cardinals wait upon the queen, but to no effect. To proceed the cause being drawn to Rome, and the king's. VIII. the cardi upon the expectation balked, he throws his disappointment upon the HENRY cardinal, and seems from this moment to have taken severe resolutions against him. Though from the account of the whole matter, it appears the cardinal was very sincere in the king's business; and prosecuted the divorce with all the heartiness and application imaginable. But the king's inclination was strongly settled upon mistress Boleyn. This fancy made him resent the pope's collusion to the highest degree, and discharge his revenge upon this minister. Besides the cardinal had great enemies at court; and amongst the rest, mistress Anne Boleyn Boleyn helped to draw down the storm upon him. It is hard nal's enemy. to tell the reason of this lady's disgust: Cavendish and the Conjectures lord Herbert are of opinion, she owed him a grudge for his cause. breaking the contract between her and my lord Percie: upon which she was dismissed the court. But not to mention the Id. p. 40. Id. p. 37. cardinal's doing nothing in this affair without the king's order, this conjecture will not hold upon another account. For, by the two letters of Anne Boleyn's to the cardinal, already related, it appears, she took this minister for her friend, and was very sensible of the kind offices he had done her: that she had now an expectation of marrying the king, and depended on the cardinal's favour for this advancement. It is plain therefore, that breaking of the contract with the lord Percie, was no present mortification. She could not therefore bear the cardinal any ill-will upon this score. Thus we are at a loss for her pt. 1. p. 55. disaffection to the cardinal, if her two letters are genuine, as by the manner they appear to be, though the historian does not tell us where he had them. But though the cause is hard Bp. Burnet, to discover, that she was his enemy is certain, as may be seen both from Cavendish in print, and more fully from his manuscript copy. Here the cardinal takes notice of the ascendant she had with the king, of the ill offices she was disposed to do him; and for that reason, he thought it best to drop his defence, as will be afterwards related. nal ordered to deliver up The king's displeasure began now to break out against the The cardicardinal; of which, the first considerable instance was, his sending for the broad seal, and ordering Wolsey to quit York- the broad place, and retire to Eshur, a house near Hampton-court, deliver up York-place. belonging to the see of Winchester. The dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, being sent to demand the seal, the cardinal told them, it was given him by the king seal, and WAR HAM, Cavend. P. 141. himself, and the office settled by letters-patent for term of life; Abp. Cant. and therefore refused to part with it. But the next day, when these noblemen returned to him with the king's letter, he acquiesced, and put it in their hands. According to sir Edward Coke, the law would not have supported him in the contest. "For the grant by patent for term of life, was holden void, because an ancient office must be granted as it has been accustomed." Coke's In stitut. pt. 4. pliance in He makes the king a large pre sent. The cardinal finding how matters went, endeavoured to put a stop to his misfortune. He did not know but that the king might either dislike his greatness, or have a fancy for some of his wealth. He therefore resolved to try the expedient of a rich present. He ordered sir William Gascoign, his treasurer, to bring out all his best furniture; amongst which were hangings of gold and silver tissue, copes of great value, and two large tables full of gold and silver plate. All this treasure the cardinal ordered to be delivered to the king: but it missed the success which Jacob's present had upon Esau; the king's Cavendish. good humour was not to be recovered. For, at the meeting of the parliament, as Cavendish reports, a bill of high treason was brought into the house against Wolsey. But Thomas Cromwell, the cardinal's secretary, who was now a member of the house of Commons, spoke to the charge and defended his master so well, that the bill was thrown out of the house. His enemies being disappointed in this attempt, got him indicted in a præmunire. Thus Cavendish reports the matter: but the lord Herbert supposes the indictment prior to the bill of attainder at present I shall follow the order of this noble historian. To begin; the cardinal was prosecuted by Hales the attorney-general, and indicted upon the statute enacted against the purchasing or pursuing bulls, instruments, processes, &c. in the court of Rome, or elsewhere against the king, his crown, 16 Rich. 2. and dignity. He was allowed to appear by his attorney. Id. p. 150. 38. He is in dicted in a præmunire. cap. 5. 1523. August 28. 15 Henry 8. And here the indictment sets forth, "That Thomas, legatus de latere, cardinal and archbishop of York, being not ignorant of the premises, had obtained certain bulls from Clement VII., by virtue of which, he exercised jurisdiction and authority legatine, to the deprivation of the king's power established in his courts of justice: which said bulls he caused to be publicly read in Westminster, assuming to himself thereupon the dignity and jurisdiction of legatus de latere: which he has exercised VIII. to this day, to the prejudice of both secular and ecclesiastical HENRY persons. And that by colour thereof, he had given away the church of Stow-Gilford in the county of Surrey, &c. All which was to the contempt of the king and his crown, and contrary to the foresaid statute of 16 Richard II. Moreover, that by colour of the said authority, he had caused the last wills and testaments of many (out of his diocese) to be exhibited and proved in his court, and their goods and chattels to be administered by such as he appointed. Also, that under colour of his said authority, he had made divers visitations out of his diocese, and drawn pensions from abbeys, to the contempt of the king and his laws." Ld. Herbert, The cardinal being not in court, before the trial came to deinc. p. 262. et conviction, some of the judges were sent down to Eshur to receive his answer. It is said, the cardinal pleaded ignorance of the statute. But this is very improbable: for, first, it is very unlikely the cardinal, who had been so long lord chancellor, Bp. Burnet, should be thus unacquainted with the laws, and know nothing pt. 1. p. 80. of a statute, in which the penalties were so heavy, and the clergy principally concerned. 2ndly, The cardinal justified the exercise of his legatine character, to the judges who were sent to examine him. He told them he had the king's license He pleads under his hand and broad seal to indemnify him: but that he the king's letcould not produce the instrument, because his trunks and coffers were seized: and that he did not misreport the matter, I shall afterwards prove to a demonstration. Now, to what purpose should he have taken the king's letters-patent to cover him in the functions of a legate, had he not been apprehensive of danger without them, at least, if he had not been conscious of some stretches in the exercise of that character? However, But declines not thinking it advisable to maintain his conduct, he confessed the contesting it any farthe indictment, sent his submission, and cast himself upon the ther." king's honour. ters-patent. Cavend. p. 151. course with Before this indictment took effect, judge Shelley was sent to His disthe cardinal to persuade him to convey York-place (now White- judge Shelley. hall) to the crown. The reason of this message, I suppose, was, because the forfeiture in the præmunire would only vest that house in the king during the cardinal's life, or at most no longer than while the see of York was vacant. Shelley told the cardinal, "it was the king's pleasure, he should convey Yorkplace to his highness; that this must be done by way of recog WAR НАМ, nizance." The cardinal replied, “he knew the king to be of a Abp. Cant. noble and equitable temper; and that he did not desire to stretch his prerogative to the oppression of the subject. He therefore desired judge Shelley and the rest of the bench not to mislead his highness, and put him upon strains of conscience and law. And as to the matter in hand, whether he might honestly convey York-place to the king, which was parcel of the archbishopric, in which the cardinal was a trustee for the Church, and had no right any longer than his life, was by no means clear. Should every bishop manage by this direction, the patrimony of the Church would be in a low condition : at this rate, it is likely nothing might be left for the benefit of their successors. And which way then could they support their character, and answer the expectations of their post?" Judge Shelley did not stick to tell him, "there was no great conscience in such compliance: but," he added, "it was in the king's power to make the Church of York more than amends some other way; and that in confidence of the king's justice, that scruple might be the better discharged." The cardinal told him, "the king had made no promise of returning a recompense." However, he signed the recognizance, and was willing to try how far an absolute obedience might work upon the king. Dec. 1. 21. H. 1. Articles exhibited against the But nothing could stop the motion of his misfortune: for, not long after, several lords and others of the privy council exhibited articles to the king against him. This charge was cardinal by transcribed from the original, and afterwards compared by sir the privy Edward Coke. It is taken word for word from the original record, without the least omission. This matter having been imperfectly and unfairly represented in the English chronicles, I shall give it the reader as it stands in the Institutes of this learned gentleman. It begins thus: council. Coke's Institut. pt. 4. fol. 89. et deinc. Cotton. Libr. Julius 1. fol. 24. "Constrained by necessity of our fidelity and conscience, complain and sue to your most royal majesty, we, your grace's humble, true, faithful and obedient subjects, that the lord cardinal of York, lately your grace's chancellor, presuming to take upon him the authority of the pope's legate de latere, hath by divers and many sundry ways and fashions, committed high and notable grievous offences, misusing, altering, and subverting the order of your grace's laws, and other ways contrary |