เ A.D. 1515. suit and instance of the English merchants, and with CHAP. XII. 'the King's consent,' that in May, 1515, More was sent out on an embassy with Bishop Tunstal, Sampson, and others, into Flanders. The ambassadors were appointed generally to obtain a renewal and continuance of the old treaties of intercourse between the two countries, but More, aided by a John Clifford, 'governor of the English merchants,' was specially charged with the commercial matters indispute: Wolsey informing Sampson of this, and Sampson replying that he is pleased with the honour of being named in the King's commission with Tunstal " and "Young More."'1 3 The party were detained in the city of Bruges about four months. They found it by no means easy to allay the bitter feelings which had been created by the prohibition of the export of wool, and other alleged in juries. In September they moved on to Brussels, and in October to Antwerp, and it was not till towards the end of the year that More, having at last successfully terminated his part in the negotiations, was able to return home. II. COLET'S SERMON ON THE INSTALLATION OF CARDINAL During the absence of More, on his embassy to Flanders, Wolsey, quit of a Parliament which, however selfish and careless of the true interests of the Commonweal, and especially of the poorer classes, had shown 1 Brewer, ii. 422 (7 May), 480, and 534; also Roper, 10. 2 Brewer, ii. 672, 679, 733, 782, | 3 Ibid. 672 and 733. 4 Ibid. 904 and 922. 5 Ibid. 1067. CHAP. XII. some symptons of grumbling at Royal demands, had A.D. 1515. pushed on more rapidly than ever his schemes of personal ambition. Installation of Cardinal Wolsey. Colet preaches the ser mon. His first step had been to procure from the Pope, through the good offices of Henry VIII., a cardinal's hat. It might possibly be the first step even to the papal chair; at least it would secure to him a position within the realm second only to the throne. It chafed him that so unmanageable a man as Warham should take precedence of himself. Let us try to realise the magnificent spectacle of the installation of the great Cardinal, for the sake of the part Colet took in it. It was on Sunday, November 18, 1515, that the ceremony was performed in Westminster Abbey. Mass was sung by Archbishop Warham (with whom Wolsey had already quarrelled), Bishop Fisher acting as crosier-bearer. The Bishop of Lincoln read the Gospel, and the Bishop of Exeter the Epistle. The Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, the Bishops of Winchester, Durham, Norwich, Ely, and Llandaff, the Abbots of Westminster, St. Alban's, Bury, Glastonbury, Reading, Gloucester, Winchcombe, and Tewkesbury, and the Prior of Coventry, were all in attendance in Pontificalibus.' All the magnates of the realm were collected to swell the pomp of the ceremony. Before this august assemblage and crowds of spectators Dean Colet had to deliver an address to Wolsey. As was usual with him, he preached a sermon suited to the occasion, more so perhaps than Wolsey intended. First speaking to the people, he explained the meaning of the title of Cardinal,' the high honour and dignity of the office, the reasons why it was con- CHAP. XII. ferred on Wolsey, alluding, first, to his merits, naming A.D. 1515. some of his particular virtues and services; secondly, to the desire of the Pope to show, by conferring this dignity on one of the subjects of Henry VIII., his zeal and favour to his grace. He dwelt upon the great power and dignity of the rank of cardinal, how it corresponded to the order of Seraphim' in the celestial hierarchy, which continually burneth in the love of 'the glorious Trinity. And having thus magnified the office of cardinal in the eyes of the people, he turned to Wolsey-so proud, ambitious, and fond of magnificence and addressed to him these few faithful words: 6 Let not one in so proud a position, made most Colet's illustrious by the dignity of such an honour, be address to puffed up by its greatness. But remember that our Saviour, in his own person, said to his disciples, "I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister," and "He who is least among you shall be greatest ""in the kingdom of heaven;" and again, "He who ""exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles "himself shall be exalted." And then, with reference to his secular duties, and having perhaps in mind the rumours of Wolsey's partiality and the unfairness of recent legislation to the poorer classes, he added-'My Lord Cardinal, be glad, and enforce yourself always to 'do and execute righteousness to rich and poor, with 6 mercy and truth.' 6 Then, addressing himself once more to the people, he 1First after the Trinity come the Seraphic spirits, all flaming and on 'fire. . . . . They are loving beings of 'the highest order, &c.' Colet's ab stract of the Celestial Hierarchy of Wolsey. CHAP. XII. desired them to pray for the Cardinal, that he might 'observe these things, and in accomplishing the same 'receive his reward in the kingdom of heaven.' A.D. 1515. Wolsey made Lord Chancel lor. This sermon ended, Wolsey, kneeling at the altar, had the formal service read over him by Warham, and the cardinal's hat placed upon his head. The 'Te Deum' was then sung, and, surrounded by dukes and earls, Wolsey left the Abbey and passed in gorgeous procession to his own decorated halls, there to entertain the King and Queen, in all pomp and splendour, bent upon pursuing his projects of self-exaltation, regardless of Colet's honest words so faithfully spoken, and little dreaming that they would ever find fulfilment in his own fall.1 Five weeks only after this event, on December 22, Warham resigned the great seal into the King's hands, and the Cardinal Archbishop of York assumed the additional title of Lord Chancellor of England. On the same day, Parliament, which had met again on November 12 to grant a further subsidy, was dissolved, and Wolsey commenced to rule the kingdom, according to his own will and pleasure, for eight years, without a Parliament, and with but little regard to the opinions of other members of the King's council. It was whilst More's keen eye was anxiously watching the clouds gathering upon the political horizon, and 1 Fiddes' Life of Wolsey. Collec- | 219, &c. Brewer, ii. 1153. tions, p. 252, quoted from MS. in 2 Brewer, ii. 1335. A.D. 1515. during the leisure snatched from the business of his CHAP. XII. embassy, that he conceived the idea of embodying his notions on social and political questions in a description of the imaginary commonwealth of the Island of Utopia Nusquama '-or Nowhere."1 It does not often happen that two friends, engaged in fellow-work, publish in the same year two books, both of which take an independent and a permanent place in the literature of Europe. But this may be said of the Novum Instrumentum' of Erasmus and the 'Utopia' of More. Still more remarkable is it that two such works, written by two such men, should, in measure, be traceable to the influence and express the views of a more obscure but greater man than they. Yet, in truth, much of the merit of both these works belongs indirectly to Colet. 6 As the Novum Instrumentum,' upon careful examination, proves to be the expression, on the part of Erasmus, not merely of his own isolated views, but of the views held in common by the little band of Oxford Reformers, on the great subject of which it treats; so the Utopia' will be found to be in great measure the expression, on More's part, of the views of the same little band of friends on social and political questions. On most of these questions Erasmus and More, in the main, thought alike: and they owed much of their common convictions indirectly to the influence of Colet. The first book of the Utopia' was written after the second, under circumstances and for reasons which will in due course be mentioned. Eras. Epist. ccli, and App. lxxxvii, |