CHAP. and all that concerned his ecclesiastical functions, that you would have supposed he had no secular cares. He found leisure for the strict performance of his private devotions to celebrate mass almost daily to hear prayers read several times a day to decide causes in his Court to receive foreign ministers to attend cabinets-to adjust all disputes which arose in the church-to give dinners to his friends, whom he often entertained in parties of two hundred — and, along with all this, for reading all the interesting publications which appeared. He proved himself sufficient for such a multiplicity of avocations, by wasting no portion of his time or his spirits in field sports, or in gaming, or in idle conversation, or in the pleasures of the table, or in any profligate pursuit. His only relaxation was pleasant reading, or discoursing with a man of learning. Although he had bishops, dukes, and earls at his table, his dinners never lasted above an hour. He appeared in splendid robes becoming his station; but his tastes were exceedingly simple. He rarely suffered wine to touch his lips; and, when he was turned of seventy, his usual beverage was small beer, which he drank very sparingly. But while he himself abstained from almost every thing at table, yet so cheerful was his countenance, and so festive his talk, that he enlivened and charmed all who were present. He was the same agreeable and rational companion at all hours. He made it a rule to abstain entirely from supper; yet, if his friends (of whom I had the happiness to be one) were assembled at that meal, he would sit down along with them and promote their conviviality, but would hardly touch any food himself. The hour generally devoted to supper he was accustomed to fill up with prayers or reading, or with telling witty stories, of which he had great store, or freely exchanging jests with his friends, but ever without ill-nature or any breach of decorum. He shunned indecency and slander as one would a serpent. So this illustrious man made the day, the shortness of which many allege as a pretext for their idleness, long enough for all the various public and private duties he had to perform."* "Hic mihi succurrit vir omni memoria seculorum dignus Guilhelmus Waramus, Arch. Cant. totius Angliæ primas: non ille quidem titulo, sed re Warham was much flattered by the compliments which in his lifetime he knew that Erasmus had paid him, and thus expresses his acknowledgments: CHAP. XXVI. Warham "Since through you I am to enjoy lasting fame, a boon Letter of denied to many great kings and commanders who have to Erasutterly vanished from the memory of mankind, unless that mus. their names may be found in some dry catalogue, I know not what in this mortal life I can offer you in return for the immortality you have conferred. I am overwhelmed when I think of the flattering mention you have made of me in conversation, in letters, and in the works you have given to the world. You would set me down for the most ungrateful of men if I did not show a deep sense of your kindness, however theologus; erat enim juris utriusque doctor. Legationibus aliquot feliciter obeundis inclaruit, et Henrico Septimo, summæ prudentiæ principi, gratus carusque factus est. His gradibus evectus est ad Cantuarensis ecclesiæ fastigium, cujus in ea insula prima est dignitas. Huic oneri, per se gravissimo, additum est aliud gravius. Coactus est suscipere Cancellarii munus, quod quidem apud Anglos plane regium est; atque huic uni honoris gratiâ, quoties in publicum procedit, regia corona sceptro regio imposito gestatur. Nam hic est velut oculus, os, ac dextra regis, supremusque totius regni Britannici judex. Hanc provinciam annis compluribus tanta dexteritate gessit ut diceres illum ei negotio natum, nulla alia teneri cura. Sed idem in his quæ spectabant ad religionem et ecclesiasticos functiones, tam erat vigilans et attentus, ut diceres eum nulla externa cura distringi. Sufficiebat illi tempus ad religiose persolvendum solenne precum pensum, ad sacrificandum fere quotidie, ad audiendum præterea duo aut tria sacra, ad cognoscendas causas, ad excipiendas legationes, ad consulendum regi si quid in aula gravius extitisset, ad visendas ecclesias, sicubi natum esset aliquid quod moderatorem postularet, ad excipiendos convivas sæpe ducentos; denique lectioni suum dabatur otium. Ad tam varias curas uni sufficiebat et animus et tempus, cujus nullam portionem dabat venatui, nullum aleæ, nullam inanibus fabulis, nullam luxui aut voluptatibus. Pro his omnibus oblectamentis erat illi vel amœna quæpiam lectio vel cum erudito viro colloquium. Quanquam interdum episcopos duces et comites haberet convivas, semper tamen prandium intra spatium horæ finiebatur. splendido apparatu, quem illa dignitas postulat, dictu incredibile quam ipse nihil deliciarum attigerit. Raro gustabat vinum, plerumque jam tum septuagenarius bibebat pertenuem cerevisiam quam illi biriam vocant, eamque ipsam perparce. Porro, quum quam minimum ciborum sumeret, tamen comitate vultus ac sermonum festivitate omne convivium exhilarabat. Vidisses eandem pransi et impransi sobrietatem. A cœnis in totum abstinebat; aut si contigissent familiares amici, quorum de numero nos eramus, accumbebat quidem, sed ita, ut pene nihil attingeret ciborum: si tales non dabantur, quod temporis cœnæ dandum erat, id vel precibus, vel lectioni impendebat, atque ut ipse leporibus scatebat mire gratis, sed citra morsum atque ineptiam, ita liberioribus jocis amicorum delectabatur: a scurrilitate et obtrectatione tam abhorrebat quam quisquam ab angue. Sic ille vir eximius sibi faciebat dies abunde longos, quorum brevitatem multi causantur." Erasmus likewise delivers an elaborate panegyric on Warham in his commentary on 1 Thess. ii. 7., and several of his other letters, but without descending to such interesting particulars of his private life as are here disclosed. In CHAP. unworthy I may be of the praises you have showered upon XXVI. General character of me."* Although Warham does not occupy the great space in the estimate of eye of posterity which he had fondly anticipated, he must be Warham. regarded with respect as a man who had passed through the highest offices with general applause,—and who, if he did not by any extraordinary talents influence the events of his age and improve the institutions of his country, could not be accused of any public delinquency, or (with the exception of his countenancing the prosecution of Empson and Dudley) of ever having treated any individual with injustice. "Quum non illaudati nominis æternitatem per te sim consecutus, qua multi præclari reges et imperatores carent, et a memoria hominum penitus exciderunt, nisi quod tantum vix nominum eorum catalogus, et id jejune quidem fiat, non video quod satis sit in hac mortali vita quod pro immortalitate reddam. Cogito enim quanta mihi tribueris ubique, vel præsens per colloquia, vel absens per literas, aut communiter per volumina: quæ quidem sunt majora, quam sustinere valeam. Judicabis ergo Cantuariensem ingratissimum nisi tui sit habi turus rationem constantissimam, licet meritis inæqualem et inferiorem.” — A. D. 1516. CHAPTER XXVII. LIFE OF CARDINAL WOLSEY FROM HIS BIRTH TILL HIS APPOINT- XXVII. We now come to the life of the man who enjoyed more CHAP. power than any of his predecessors or successors who have held the office of Chancellor in England. the son of a butcher. THOMAS WOLSEY, destined to be Archbishop of York, Wolsey Legate à latere, Lord Chancellor, and for many years master of the King and kingdom, was born at Ipswich, in Suffolk, in the year 1471, and though "fashioned to much honour," was "from an humble stock," being the son of a butcher in that Some of his admirers have, without reason, questioned the particular voca. Proots. tion of his father; for that he was the son of a low tradesman in a country town is admitted. It cannot detract from his merit that his father was a butcher, and the fact stands on strong evidence. In his own lifetime he was called "the butcher's dog;" and Shakspeare, who must have conversed with persons who well recollected the Cardinal, puts these words into the mouth of Buckingham:. "This butcher's cur is venom-mouth'd, and I Have not the power to muzzle him.” His origin from the "boucher's stall" is distinctly averred in the contemporary satire of "Mayster Skelton, poete laureate : "He regardeth Lordes No more than pot shordes, He ruleth al at will Without reason or skyll, And his base progeny, And his gresy genealogy, He came out of the sanke roiall That was cast out of a boucher's stall." Luther, in his Colloquies, calls him "a butcher's son." Polydore Virgil speaks of his father as "a butcher;" and Fuller, in his Church History, observes, that, "to humble the Cardinal's pride, some person or other had set up in a window belonging to his College, at Oxford, a painted mastiff dog gnawing the spade bone of a shoulder of mutton, to remind him of his extraction." Godwyn says, "Patre lanio pauperculo prognatus est." If his father had been of any other trade, the fact might have been easily established; but Cavendish, his gentleman usher and biographer, who must have heard the assertion hundreds of times, is contented with saying that "he was an honest poor man's son," and the only supposed contradiction is the father's will, showing that he had houses and property to dispose of, which he might as well have acquired by slaughtering cattle, as by any other occupation. The will shows him to have been a very pious Christian. After leaving his soul to " Almyhty God, our Lady Sent Mary, and to all the company of Hevyn," he says, "itm, I wyll that if Thomas my son be a prest wtin a yer next after my decesse, yan I wylle that he syng for me and CHAP. XXVII. From his cradle he is said to have given signs of those lively parts which led to his buoyant career, but we possess Sent to the no particulars of his early domestic life to throw light on the University. formation of his character; and, till he was sent to the Wolsey "the boy Bachelor." University, nothing has reached us respecting his studies, except a statement that the indications of genius he displayed induced some of his townsmen to assist his father in maintaining him at Oxford. He was entered of Magdalen College when still of tender years, and he made such proficiency that, when only fifteen, he took his Bachelor's degree with great distinction, gaining the honourable soubriquet of “the boy Bachelor." In the very zenith of his fortune he used to boast with laudable vanity of this appellation, as the best proof of his early devotion to literature. Fellow of At an early age he was elected a fellow of Magdalen, Magdalen, and there being a school connected with the college accordand schoolmaster. ing to the usage then prevailing, he was appointed head master. He dedicated himself with great diligence and success to the duties of this humble office. While so occupied, he formed an acquaintance with Sir T. Moore, then an undergraduate, and with Erasmus, who had taken up his residence at Oxford. Tutor to sons of Marquess of Dorset. Wolsey a country parson. The probability at this time was, that he would spend the rest of his days in the University, and that his ambition (which could not have aspired higher) might be crowned with the headship of his college. But it so happened that he had for pupils three sons of the Marquess of Dorset, and during a Christmas vacation he accompanied them to the country seat of their father. Wolsey was now in his twenty-ninth year, of great acquirements, both solid and ornamental,-remarkably handsome in his person, insinuating in his manners, and amusing in his conversation. The Marquess was so much. struck with him, that he at once proffered him his friendship, and as a token of his regard presented him to the rectory of Lymington, in Somersetshire, which then happened to fall vacant. Wolsey accordingly took orders, and was my frends be the space of a yer, and he for to haue for his salary x marc." The will bears date September, 1486, and was proved in the month of October following. The testator signs himself Robert Wuley, but by this name the son was known, till he changed it euphonic causâ. |