which was represented to the king as being apparently fatal. The king ordered his physician, Dr. Butts, to visit him, who confirmed what had been reported of the dangerous state of his health, but intimated that as his disease affected his mind rather than his body, a kind word from his majesty might prove more effectual than the best skill of the faculty. On this the king sent him a ring, with a gracious message that he was not offended with him in his heart; and Anne Boleyn sent him a tablet of gold that usually hung at her side, with many kind expressions. The cardinal received these testimonies of returning favour with joy and gratitude, and in a few days was pronounced out of danger.

Nor can we blame Wolsey for his credulity, since Henry, although he had stripped the cardinal of all his property, and the income arising from all his preferments, actually granted him, Feb. 12, 1530, a free pardon for all crimes and misdemeanors, and a few days after restored to him the revenues, &c. of the archbishopric of York, except York place, before-mentioned, and one thousand marks yearly from the bishopric of Winchester. He also sent him a present of 3000l. in money, and a quantity of plate and furniture exceeding that sum, and allowed him to remove from Esher to kichmond, where he resided for some time in the lodge in the old park, and afterwards in the priory. His enemies at court, however, who appear to have influenced the king beyond his usual arbitrary disposition, dreaded Wolsey's being so near his majesty, and prevailed on him to order him to reside in his archbishopric. In obedience to this mandate, which was softened by another gracious message from Henry, he first went to the archbishop's seat at Southwell, and about the end of September fixed his residence at Cawood castle, which he began to repair, and was acquiring popularity by his hospitable manners and bounty, when his capricious master was persuaded to arrest him for high treason, and order him to be conducted to London. Accordingly, on the first of November he set out, but on the road he was seized with a disorder of the dysenteric kind, brought on by fatigue. and anxiety, which put a period to his life at Leicester abbey on the 28th of that month, in the fifty-ninth year. of his age *. Some of his last words implied the awful and

The cardinal had a bastard son called Thomas Winter," Bulla Julji

Pont. Rom. dilecti filio Thomæ Wulcy
Rectori parocb. Eccl'iæ de Lymyngtoa

just reflection, that if he had served his God as diligently as he had served his king, he would not have given him over to his enemies. Two days after he was interred in the abbey church of Leicester, but the spot is not now known. As to the report of his having poisoned himself, founded on an expression in the printed work of Cavendish, it has been amply refuted by a late eminent antiquary, who examined the whole of the evidence with much acuteness*,

Modern historians have formed a more favourable estimate of Wolsey's character than their predecessors, yet it had that mixture of good and evil which admits of great variety of opinion, and gives to ingenious party-colouring all the appearance of truth. Perhaps Shakspeare, borrow ing from Holinshed and Hall, has drawn a more just and comprehensive sketch of his perfections and failings than is to be found in any other writer.

སྐ

"This cardinal,

Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly
Was fashioned to much honour. From his cradle
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading;
Lofty and sour to them that lov'd him not;

But to those men that sought him, sweet as summer.
And though he was unsatisfy'd in getting,
(Which was a sin) yet in bestowing, madam,
He was most princely: Ever witness for him
Those twins of learning that he raised in you,
Ipswich and Oxford! one of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;

The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue,
His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him :
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little:
And, to add greater honours to his age

Than man could give him, he died, fearing God .",

The cardinal's biographers, in treating of the foundation of his college, begin with a very laboured defence of his seizing the property and revenues of many priories and nunneries, which were to serve as a fund for building and

Batho. Well. dioc. Magistrum in Ar tibus pro Dispensatione ad tertium incompatibil. da'. Romæ. 1508. prid. cál. Augusti Pont. n'ri anno quinto." -Kennet's MSS. in Brit. Mus. oblig. ingly communicated by Mr. Ellis.

The learned Dr. Samuel Pegge. See Gent. Mag. vol. XXV. p. 25, and two very able articles on the cardinal's impeachment, p. 299, 345,

+ The speech of the honest chronicler, Griffith," to queen Katherine. Henry VIII. Act IV. Scene IL. J

endowment; and the zeal they display on this subject, if it cannot now enforce conviction, at least proves the histo rical fact that the rights of property even at that time were not to be violated with impunity, and that the cardinal's conduct was highly unpopular. At first it was objected to even by the king himself, although he soon afterwards converted it into a precedent for a more general dissolu tion of religious houses. Wolsey, however, ought not to be deprived of such defence as has been set up. It has been urged, that he procured bulls from the pope empowering him to seize on these priories; and that 'the pope, according to the notions then entertained of his su premacy, could grant a power by which religious houses might be converted into societies for secular priests, and for the advancement of learning. It has been also pleaded, that the cardinal did not alienate the revenues from religious service, but only made a change in the application of them; that the appropriation of the alien priories by Chichele and Waynfete was in some respects a precedent, and that the suppression of the Templers in the fourteenth century, might also be quoted. Bishop Tanner likewise, in one of his letters to Dr. Charlett, quotes as precedents, bishops Fisher, Alcock, and Beckington. But perhaps the best excuse is that hinted by lord Cherbury, namely, that Wolsey persuaded the king to abolish unnecessary mo nasteries that necessary colleges might be erected, and the progress of the reformation impeded by the learning of the clergy and scholars educated in them. The same writer suggests, that as Wolsey pleaded for the dissolution of only the small and superfluous houses, the king might not dislike this as a fair experiment how far the project of a general dissolution would be relished. On the other hand, by two letters still extant, written by the king, it appears that he was fully aware of the unpopularity of the measure, although we cannot infer from them that he had any remedy to prescribe.

Whatever weight these apologies had with one part of the public, we are assured that they had very little with another, and that the progress of the college was accompanied by frequent expressions of popular dislike in the shape of lampoons. The kitchen having been first finished, one of the satirists of the day exclaimed, Egregium opus! Cardinalis iste instituit Collegium et absolvit popinam. Other VOL. XXXII.

S

mock inscriptions were placed on the walls, one of which at least, proved prophetic;

"Non stabit illa domus, aliis fundata rapinis,

Aut ruet, aut alter raptor habebit eam."

By two bulls, the one dated 1524, the other 1525, Wolsoy obtained of pope Clement VII. leave to enrich his col→ lege by suppressing twenty-two priories and nunneries, the revenues of which were estimated at nearly 2000l.; but on bis disgrace some of these were given by the king for other purposes. The king's patent, after a preface paying high compliments to the cardinal's administration, enables him to build his college principally on the site of the priory of St. Frideswide; and the name, originally intended to be "The College of Secular Priests," was now changed to CARDINAL COLLEGE. The secular clergy in it were to be denominated the "dean and canons secular of the cardinal of York," and to be incorporated into one body, and sube sist by perpetual succession. He was also authorised to settle upon it 2000l. a year clear revenue. By other pa tents and grants to the dean and canons, various church livings were bestowed upon them, and the college was to be dedicated to the praise, glory, and honour of the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary, St. Frideswide, and All Saints.

With respect to the constitution of this college, there is a considerable variation between the account given by the historian of Oxford, and that by Leonard Hutten, canon of Christ Church, in 1599, and many years sub-dean. His manuscript, now in the possession of the college, and quoted in the Monasticon, states that, according to Wolsey's design, it was to be a perpetual foundation for the study of the sciencés, divinity, canon and civil law, also the arts, physic, and polite literature, and for the continual performance of divine service. The members were to hea dean, and sixty regular canons, but no canons of the see cond order, as Wood asserts.

Of these Wolsey himself named the dean and eighteen of the canons. The dean was Dr. John Hygden, president of Magdalen college, and the canons first nominated were all taken from the other colleges in Oxford, and were men of acknowledged reputation in their day. He afterwards added others, deliberately, and according as he was able to supply the vacancies by men of talents, whom he determined to seek wherever they could be found. Among his latter appointments from Cambridge, we find

the names of Tyndal and Frith, the translators of the Bible, and who had certainly discovered some symptoms of heresy before this time. Cranmer and Parker, afterwards the first and second protestant archbishops of Canterbury, were also invited, but declined; and the cardinal went on to complete his number, reserving all nominations to himself during his life, but intending to bequeath that power to the dean and canons at his death. In this, however, he was as much disappointed as in his hopes to embody a force of learned men sufficient to cope with Luther and the for reign reformers, whose advantage in argument hè cónceived to proceed from the ignorance which prevailed among the monastic clergy.

The society, as he planned it, was to consist of one hundred and sixty persons, according to Wood, or omitting the forty canons of the second order, in the enumeration of whom Wood was mistaken, one hundred and forty-six; but no mention could yet be made of the scholars who were to proceed from his school at Ipswich, although, had be lived, these would doubtless have formed a part of the society, as the school was established two years before his fall. This constitution continued from 1525 to 1529-30, when he was deprived of his power and property, and for two years after it appears to have been interrupted, if not dissolved. It is to his honour that in his last correspondence with secretary Cromwell and with the king, when all worldly prospects were about to close upon him, he pleaded with great earnestness, and for nothing so earnestly, as that his majesty would be pleased to suffer his college at Oxford to go on. What effect this had, we know not, but the urgent entreaties of the members of the society, and of the university at large, were at length successful, while at the same time the king determined to deprive Wolsey of all merit in the establishment, and transfer the whole to himself. The subsequent history of Christ church it would be unnecessary to detail in this place.

An impartial life of cardinal Wolsey is perhaps still a desideratum in English biography *. Cavendish is minute and interesting in what he relates of the cardinal's domestië history, but defective in dates and arrangement, and not altogether free from partiality; which, however, in one so

A Life of Wolsey has indeed been recently published by Mr. Galt, which the editor has not yet had an opportunity of perusing.