CHAP. When on his death-bed, he asked his steward what money he had in the world, and was answered, "Thirty pounds:" he exclaimed, "Satis viatici in cœlum." His effects were found hardly sufficient to pay his debts, and the small expense of death-bed. his funeral. Conduct on Erasmus. His great glory was his connection with ERASMUS. He His friendhad early formed a friendship with this distinguished scholar ship with -had constantly corresponded with him--had induced him to visit England—had given him church preferment here,— and had made him munificent presents. of Warham Erasmus showed his gratitude by dedicating to his patron Character his Edition of the works of St. Jerom, in terms the most by Erasflattering; and by celebrating his praises in letters addressed mus. to literati on the Continent of Europe. I offer the translation of one of these written shortly after the Archbishop's death, as the best account of his character and his manners: "I have the most tender recollection of a man worthy to be held in perpetual honour, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Primate of all England. He was a theologian in reality as well as by title, and profoundly versed both in the civil and canon law. He early gained reputation by his skilful conduct of foreign embassies intrusted to him; and, on account of his consummate prudence, he was much beloved and esteemed by King Henry VII. Thus he rose to be Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest ecclesiastical dignity in the Island. Bearing this burden, itself very weighty, one heavier still was imposed upon him. He was forced to accept the office of Chancellor, which, among the English, is attended with regal splendour and power. As often as he goes into public, a crown and sceptre are carried before him." He is the eye, the mouth-piece, and the right hand of the Sovereign; and the supreme Judge of the whole British empire. For many years, Warham executed the duties of this office so admirably, that you would have supposed he was born with a genius for it, and that he devoted to it the whole of his time and thoughts. But all the while he was so constantly watchful and attentive with respect to religion, I presume the purse and the mace. Erasmus may have seen Wolsey with his crosses, pillars, and poll-axes. 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 CHAP. XXVI. Warham Warham was much flattered by the compliments which in his lifetime he knew that Erasmus had paid him, and thus expresses his acknowledgments:"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 amona 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. character of me."* General 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 habiturus 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 town. * Some of his admirers have, without reason, questioned the particular voca. Proois. 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, Howbeit they be prymordyall: 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 |