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respectable butcher at Ipswich, in Suffolk, and
recieved so exellent education that he became a tutor to the family of Mar-
qius of Dorset, who afterwards got him appointed one of the late King's
chaplains. On the accession of Henry VIII, he was promoted and taken into great favour with the King - whether he were a foreign monarch or an English nobleman - was obliged to make a friend of the great Cardinal Wolsey.
He was a gay man, who could dance and jest, and sing and drink. He was wonderfully fond of pomp and glitter, and so was the King. He knew a good deal of the Church learning of that time, much of which consisted of finding artful excuses and pretences for almost any wrong thing, and in
arguing that black was white, or any other colour. This kind of learning pleased the King too. For many such reasons, the Cardinal was high in estimation with the King, and, being a man of greater ability, knew how to manage him. Never had there been seen in England such state as that Lord Cardinal kept. His wealth was equal, it was reckoned, to the riches of the Crown. His palaces were as splendid as the King's, and his retinue was eight hundred strong. He held his Court, dressed out from top to toe in flaming scarlet; and his very shoes were golden, set with precious stones.
His followers tode on blood-horses, while he, with wonderful affectation of humility in the midst of his great splendour, ambled on a mule.
Though the influence of his stately priest, a grand meeting was arranged to take place between the French and English Kings in France, but on ground belonging to England. A prodigious show of friendship was to be made on the occation, and heralds were sent to proclaim with brazen trumplets through all the principal cities of Europe, that, on a certain day, the Kings of France and England, as companions and brothers in arms,
each attended by 18 followers, would hold a tournament against all knights who might choose to come.
Charles, a new Emperor of Germany (the old one being dead), wanted to prevent that aliance between the two sovereigns, and came over to Eng-
land and secured Wolsey's interest by promising that his influence should make him Pope when the next vacancy occured. On the day when the Em-
peror left England, the King and the Court went over to Calais, and thence
to the place of meeting, commonly called the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
There were sham castles, temporary chapels, fountains running wine, great cellars full of wine free as water to all comers, silk tents, gold lace and gilt lions, and such things without end. And, in the midst of all, the rich Cardinal outshone and outglittered all the noblemen and gentlemen assembled. After a treaty had been made between the two Kings with as much solemnity as if they had intended to keep it, the lists - 900 feet long,
and 320 broad - were opened for the tournament. Then, for ten days, the
two sovereigns fought five combats every day, and always beat their polite adversaries.
***
Of course, nothing came of all these fine doings but a speedy renewal of the war between England and France, in which the two Royal com-panions longed very earnestly to damage one another. But, before it broke out again, the Duke of Buckingham was shamefully executed on Tower Hill, on the evidence of a discharged servant - really for nothing, except the folly of having believed in a friar of the name of Hopkins, who had pretended to be a prophet, and who had mumbled and jumbled out some nonsense about the Duke's son being destined to be very great in the land. It was believed that the unfortunate Duke had given offence to the great Cardinal by expressing his mind freely about the expense and absurdity of the whole business of the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
The new war was a short one, though the Earl of Surrey invaded France again, and did some injury to that country. It ended in another treaty of peace between the two kingdoms, and the discovery that the Emperor of Germany was not such a good friend to England in reality, as he pretend-ed to be. Neither did he keep his promise to Wolsey to make him Pope, though the King urged him. So the Cardinal and King together found out that the Emperor of Germany was not a man to keep faith with. They broke off a projected marriage between the King's daughter Mary, Prin-cess of Wales, and that sovereign, and began to consider whether it might not be well to marry the young lady, either to Francis himself, or to his eldest son.
***
There now arose at Wittemberg****, in Germany, the great leader of the mighty change in England which is called The Reformation*****, and which set the people free from their slavery to the priests. This was a learned Doctor, named Martin Luther******, who knew all about them, for he had been a priest, and even a monk, himself. The preaching and writing of Wickliffe******* had set a number of men thinking on this subject, and Luther, finding one day to his great surprise, that there really was a book called the New Testament which the priests did not allow to be read, and which contained truths that they suppressed, began to be very vigorous agains the whole body, from the Pope downward. It happened, while he was yet only beginning his work or awakening the nation, that a friar named Tetzel came into his neighbourhood selling what were called Indulgences, by wholesale, to raise money for beautifying the St. Peter's Cathidral at Rome. Those who bought an Indulgence of the Pope were supposed to buy themselves from the punishment of Heaven for their offences. Luther told the people that Indulgences were worthless bits of paper.
The King and the Cardinal were mightly indignant at this presumption; and the King (with the help of Sir Thomas More********, a wise man, whom the afterwards repaid by striking off
his head) even wrote a book about it, with
which the Pope was so well pleased that he
gave the King the title of Defender of the
Faith. The King and Cardinal also issued
flaming warnings to the people not to read
Luther's books, on pain of excommunica-
tion. But they did read them for all that; and
the rumour of what was in them spread far
and wide.
When this great change was thus going
on, the King began to show himself in his
truest and worst colours. Anne Boleyn, the pretty little girl who had gone abroad to France with her sister, was by this time grown up to be very
beautiful, and was one of the ladies in attendance on Queen Catherine. Queen Catherine was no longer young or pretty, and it is likely that she was not particularly good-tempered, having been always rather melan-choly, and having been made more so by deaths of four of her children when they were very young. So, the King fell in love with the fair Anne Boleyn. He wanted to get rid of his wife and marry Anne.
Queen Catherine had been the wife of
Henry's brother Arthur. So the King called
his favourite priests about him, and said
that he thought that it had not been lawful
for him to marry the Queen.
They answered that it was a serious busi-
ness, and perhaps the best way to make it
right, would be for His Majesty to be de-
vorced. That was the answer the King was
pleased with; so they all went to work.
Many intrigues and plots took place to
get this devorce. Finally, the Pope issued
a commission to Cardinal Wolsey
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