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At the same time he was ordered to quit York-place, a palace which he had built in London, and which afterwards became a royal residence under the name of Whitehall. All his rich furniture and plate was seized to the king's use, and he was directed to retire to Esher, where he possessed a seat as bishop of Winchester. Wolsey was stunned with the blow, which fell upon him as on one who had no resource of magnanimity within himself, and whose loftiness of mind was merely the result of high fortune; and on a gleam of returning favour, conveyed in a gracious message from the king, accompanied with a ring, he was so much transported with joy, that being on horseback when the messenger met him, he threw himself on his knees in the dirt, and in that posture received the tokens of his master's remembrance. But in that servile age such meanness was universal. Notwithstanding this fit of capricious fondness, the king ordered him to be indicted in the star-chamber; and then abandoned him to the rigour of the parliament. The House of Lords drew up an accusation against him, consisting of 44 articles, which being sent to the Commons, Thomas Cromwell, whom the cardinal, from a low condition in his service, had raised to an elevated station, defended him with so much vigour, that his enemies were baffled. They therefore adopted the measure of indicting him upon the statute of provisors, passed in the reign of Richard II., which forbade the procuring of bulls from Rome, and which he had violated by obtaining the legatine power; and though he had exercised it with full approbation of the king, it was made the ground of a sentence, putting him out of the king's protection, forfeiting all his lands and goods, and declaring him liable to imprisonment. After the intended effect was produced, of making him resign to the king, Yorkplace with all its furniture, a very full pardon was granted him for past offences of every kind, and the revenues of his archbishoprics, with part of his goods, were restored to him. In 1550, he was ordered to remove to his diocese of York, where he passed part of the year at his mansion of Cawood, exercising hospitality, and ingratiating himself by his assumed affability with the neighbouring gentry. For what reason the king renewed his hostility towards this humiliated minister, and resolved to proceed to extremities with him, is not very apparent; but his determination to keep no measures with the pope, and to remove every obstacle against an open breach with the see of Rome, is alleged as the most probable cause. The earl of Northumberland received an order to arrest the cardinal for high treason, and conduct him to London for trial. This was executed in the end of October, and on November 1st, he set out under custody upon his final journey. Indisposition of body, conspiring with mental distress, reduced him to such a state of debility, that he was obliged to stop at Worcester, where he was

honourably received in the abbey. The pathetic language of Shakspeare represents him as saying on entrance,

O father abbot,

An old man, broken with the storms of state,
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye,
Give him a little earth for charity!

His disorder gaining upon him, a few days brought him to his end, in the sixtieth year of his age. He expired 29th of Nov. 1530, and a few hours before his death he exclaimed in agony, "had I served my God with the same zeal that I have served the king, he would not have forsaken me thus in my old age." The history of Wolsey shows, in a striking degree, the vicissitudes of fortune. His private character was so depraved, that he deserved little of the favour of his master. It has been truly observed, that few ever fell from so high a station with less crimes objected against them. It must be acknowledged that he was a man of abilities, well acquainted with the learning of the times, sagacious as a politician, and well versed in the intrigues of courts. Notwithstanding, however, his vices and his ambition, his schemes for the promotion of literature were noble. He not only founded seven lectures at Oxford, but Christ-Church owes its greatness to his munificence. He also founded a school at Ipswich. Among his honours he possessed the commission of pope's legate, a latere, he was abbot of St. Alban's, bishop of Winchester and Durham, and he held in farm the dioceses of Bath, Worcester, and Hereford.-See Howard's "Wolsey and his Times."

WILLIAM PAULET, marquis of Winchester, one of the courtiers of Henry VIII. At a time when religious opinions were liable to persecution, he retained his places, and when asked how he had so securely weathered the storm, he replied, "By being a willow and not an oak." He died 1572, aged 97.

SİR ANTHONY DENNY, one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber, to king Henry VIII., was the second son of Thomas Denny, of Cheshunt in the county of Hertford, esquire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Mannock. He was educated at St Paul's school, London, and at St. John's college, Cambridge. Henry VIII. made him one of the gentlemen of the bed chamber, groom of the stole, a privy counsellor, and likewise conferred on him the honour of knighthood. He also gave him many rich estates. When Henry VIII. was on his death bed, he faithfully reminded him of his approaching end, and exhorted him to raise his thoughts to Heaven, to repent of his sins and to beseech God for mercy through Jesus Christ. Henry appointed him one of the executors of his will, and one of the counsellors of his son and successor Edward

VI., and bequeathed him a legacy of 300%. He died in 1550. By his wife Joan, daughter of Sir Philip Champernon, of Modbury, in Devonshire, a lady of great beauty and parts, he had six children. Sir Anthony Denny's whole time was employed in the cause of religion, learning, and the public good. He was the early friend and patron of Matthew Parker, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. The learned Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, wrote an excellent epitaph for him some years before his decease; and Sir John Cheke honoured his memory with an elegant heroic poem.

SIR THOMAS MORE, lord high chancellor of England, son of Sir John More, one of the judges of the King's Bench, was born in 1480, at London; where he received the rudiments of his education. He was afterwards introduced to cardinal Moreton, who, in 1497, sent him to Canterbury college, in Oxford, where he attended the lectures of Linacre and Grocinus, on Greek and Latin. In 1499, he went to New Inn, in London, to study the law; whence he removed to Lincoln's Inn, of which his father was a member. Notwithstanding his application to the law, however, he was so bigoted to monkish discipline, that he wore a hair shirt next his skin, and often fasted and slept on a bare plank, In 1503, being then a burgess in parliament, he distinguished himself in the house, in opposition to the motion for granting a subsidy and three 15ths for the marriage of Henry VII.'s eldest daughter, Margaret, to king James V. of Scotland. The motion was rejected; and the king was so highly offended at this opposition from a beardless boy, that he revenged himself on Mr. More's father, by sending him to the Tower, and obliging him to pay 100%. for his liberty. Being now called to the bar, he was appointed law-reader at Furnival's Inn, which he held about three years. About this time, he also read a public lecture in St. Lawrence's church, Old Jewry, upon St. Austin's treatise De Civitate Dei, with great applause. He had intended to become a Franciscan friar, but was dissuaded from it; and, by the advice of D. Colet, married Jane, daughter of John Colt, Esq. of Newhall, in Essex. In 1508, he was appointed judge of the sheriff's court in London, was made a justice of the peace, and became very eminent at the bar. In 1516, he went to Flanders with Bishop Tonstal, and Dr. Knight, who were sent by Henry VIII., to renew the alliance with the archduke of Austria, afterwards Charles V. On his return, Cardinal Wolsey would have engaged him in the service of the crown, and offered him a pension, which he refused. But he soon after accepted the place of master of requests, was created a knight, and a privy counsellor; and in 1520, made treasurer of the exchequer. About this time he built a house at Chelsea, and married a second wife, whose name was Mid

dleton, a widow, old, ill-tempered, and covetous; yet Erasmus says, he was as fond of her, as if she had been a young maid. In 1523, he was made speaker of the House of Commons: in which capacity he had the courage to oppose the then powerful minister, Wolsey, in his demand of an oppressive subsidy; yet he was, soon after, made chancellor of Lancaster, and was treated by the king with singular familiarity. The king having once dined with Sir Thomas at Chelsea, walked with him near an hour in the garden, with his arm round his neck. After he was gone, Mr. Roper, Sir Thomas's son-in-law, observed how happy he was to be so familiarly treated by the king; to which Sir Thomas replied, "I must tell thee, I have no cause to be proud thereof; for if my head would win him a castle in France, it would not fail to go off." In 1526, he was sent with Cardinal Wolsey and others, on a joint embassy to France, and in 1529, with Bishop Tonstal to Cambray. The king, it seems, was so well pleased with his services on these occasions, that in 1530, he made him chancellor; which seems the more extraordinary, since Sir Thomas had repeatedly declared his disapprobation of the king's divorce. His conduct in this important post was most exemplary, and never was it filled by any one who surpassed him in diligence, honour, and integrity. For the benefit of poor suitors, he sat every afternoon in his own hall, ready to attend to their causes; and such was his despatch of business, that when he resigned the seals, there was not one cause remaining for decision. He rejected all bribes that were offered, and that without any show of austerity, but in his own good humoured manner. Thus, the wife of a man who had a suit in chancery, having brought him a gold cup as a present, he ordered it to be filled with wine, and drinking her health, delivered it to her again for a new year's gift. When another lady had presented him with a pair of gloves, and forty pounds worth of angels in them, he said, "Mistress, since it were unmannerly to refuse your gift, I accept the gloves, but utterly refuse the lining." His impartiality when the interests of any connected with him were concerned, may be judged of from the following circumstance. One of his sons-in-law, Mr. Heron, having a cause depending, was advised by the chancellor to submit it to arbitration; and, when presuming upon the favour of his great relation, he declined the proposal, he had the mortification to find a decree given directly against him. The state of his mind as to public affairs, and the earnestness of his wishes for the public good, may be deduced from what he said to Mr. Roper, as he was walking with him one day by the side of the Thames. "On condition that three things were well established in Christendom, I would to our Lord, son Roper, that I were put here into a sack, and presently thrown into the Thames."

These three things he explained to be, universal peace among Christian princes, a perfect uniformity of religion, and a good conclusion to the disquiets respecting the king's marriage. As to this last point, nothing could induce him to concur in the king's favourite project of a divorce; and being sensible that he could not finally be diverted from it, and that his station would oblige him to take some decided part, he solicited, and at length obtained permission to resign the seals, after holding them two years and a half. The cheerfulness and serenity with which he took his loss of dignity, was displayed in the manner in which he apprised his wife of the event. Going with his family the next day, which was a holiday, to Chelsea church, after mass was over, he went to her pew door, as one of his gentlemen was accustomed at other times to do, and opening it with a low bow, said, "Madam, my Lord is gone out." She did not at first apprehend the jest, and when he seriously informed her of the fact, she by no means approved of the sacrifice he had made. Indeed he was but slenderly furnished for an honourable retirement, for he had little more than 100%. of yearly revenue left; but his mind was fully prepared to submit to every necessary retrenchment. He provided situations for his gentlemen and servants, among his friends of the nobility and prelacy, lessened his household by parting with his married. children and their families, who had hitherto resided with him, and quitting all political concerns, devoted himself entirely to letters and religion; but the capricious tyrant would not suffer him to enjoy his tranquillity. Though now reduced to a private station, his opinion of the legality of the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn, was deemed of so much importance, that various means were tried to obtain his approbation; but all persuasion proving ineffectual, he was with some others attainted in the House of Lords of misprision of treason, for encouraging Elizabeth Barton, in her treasonable practices. His innocence appeared so clear, that they were obliged to strike his name out of the bill. He was then accused of other crimes, but with the same effect; till, refusing to take the oath enjoined by the act of supremacy, he was committed to the Tower; and after thirteen months imprisonment, was tried at the King's Bench, for high treason, in denying the king's supremacy. The proof rested on the sole evidence of Rich, the solicitor-general, whom Sir Thomas, in his defence, sufficiently discredited; nevertheless the jury brought him in guilty, and he was condemned to suffer as a traitor. The illustrious culprit received his sentence with all the serenity of conscious innocence, and was re-conveyed to the Tower. At the Tower-wharf, his favourite daughter, Mrs. Roper, was waiting to take her last farewell of him. At his approach, she burst through the throng, fell on her knees

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