Again and by him. Sure in such cases wherein his private | judged accordingly. In him centred vario us ends made him not a party, he was an excellent great offices, of law, of diplomacy, of political justicier, as being too proud to be bribed and and ecclesiastical administration, such as occupy too strong to be overborne." Erasmus, in one the time and attention of several men in of his Epistles writes concerning Wolsey that modern times. He was responsible alone to the he was the chief bringer about of a peace king, who, occupied with the amusements of between the chief monarchs of the world, when the court, or dreading the plague, or having even Pope Leo X. could only effect a five years' full confidence in his minister, cared not to truce; that he had proceeded a fair way to interfere. In addition to all this Wolsey's render Britain more glorious than ever it had health was far from being good. been; that he had so thoroughly purged the again he was attacked by the Sweating Sickland of robbers, highwaymen, and idle vagrants, ness, and once his life was despaired of; yet that it was no more free of poison and of the business of the nation was not neglected. noxious wild beasts than of harmful men; that by his authority he ended many perplexing lawsuits; that he composed differences among great men; restored the monasteries to their ancient discipline; reformed the manners of the clergy; and revived the study of the liberal arts. Allowing for the manifest hyperbole of this eulogium, which is couched in what was beginning to be the pedantic fashion of those times, the character and doings of Wolsey so described by Erasmus are creditable to his memory, and should not in justice be forgotten amid the pride and pomp usually ascribed to him. Among the Lansdowne MSS. (No. 978, fol. 213) in the British Museum is a letter to the earl of Shrewsbury from Thomas Allen his chaplain, written in 1517, which, perhaps, is not a solitary instance of the bearing of Wolsey towards suitors:-"Pleaseth your lordship to understand upon Monday was se'nnight last past I delivered your letter with the examination to my Lord Cardinal at Guildford, whence he commanded me to wait on him to the court; I followed him, and there gave attendance, and could have no answer. On Friday last he came from thence to Hampton Court, where he lieth. The morrow after I besought his Grace I might know his pleasure; I could have no answer. Upon Monday last, as he walked in the park at Hampton Court, I besought his Grace I might know if he would command me any service. He was not content with me that I spoke to him. So that who shall be a suitor to him may have no other business but give attendance upon his pleasure. He that shall so do, it is needful should be a wiser man than I am. I saw no remedy, but came without answer, except I would have done as my Lord Dacre's servant doth, who came with letters for the king's service five months since and yet hath no answer; and another servant of the deputy of Calais likewise who came before the other to Walsingham I heard, when he answered them, 'If ye be not content to tarry my leisure, depart when ye will.' This is truth. I had rather your lordship commanded me to Rome than deliver him letters, and bring answers to the same. When he walketh in the park he will suffer no servant to come nigh him, but commands them away as far as one might shoot an arrow." After this statement, no one will wonder that Wolsey should have been disliked by the nobility and courtiers. Even Cavendish says, "I assure you, in his time he was the haughtiest man in all his proceedings The ordinary round of his duties has been already explained in the quotations from Cavendish. What remained of the day after the performance of those manifold and onerous duties, was spent in dictating or correcting despatches, in giving audience to ambassadors, in attending to the political news and correspondence of the times, and in introducing method and economy into the different branches of the government administration. Before his time the accounts had been loosely kept; long arrears of debt had accumulated; court parasites had diverted the royal funds, which seemed to be in an almost hopeless state of confusion; but Wolsey addressed himself to the task of reform and economy, and as was to be expected this drew upon him much odium and ill-will from numerous interested persons. That he was hasty, impatient, peremptory, and sometimes quick to manifest anger can be readily understood by those who appreciate his character and who consider his excessive labours. The extreme difficulties of his position, the impatience of a man of such transcendent genius and powers at the folly, stupidity, and opposition manifested by conceited mediocrity or by grasping self-interest, must have sometimes led him to do and say things that appeared harsh, arbitrary, and unceremonious; but his position alive." and power were exceptional, and he must be! 1513] DIFFICULTIES IN TAXATION. 295 AUTHORITIES. Cavendish, Life of Wolsey. CHAPTER IX. Continental affairs. Difficulties of raising the taxes. Another attack of "Sweating Sickness." Statement of Erasmus on English dwellings. Jealousy of foreign traders-Outbreaks in London. "Field of the Cloth of Gold." Execution of the duke of Buckingham. A.D. 1514-1521. By the decease of Ferdinand of Spain, Charles, grandson of the Emperor Maximilian, became king of that country with all its newly-acquired possessions in the Indies and in America, and a life-long rivalry ensued between him and Francis I. of France. The latter still claimed the dukedom of Milan and was intriguing for supremacy in Germany, to which Charles looked forward as his own on the death of Maximilian. Both the rivals sought the alliance of England, and both sought to ingratiate themselves with its potent minister. Maximilian secretly proposed to adopt Henry as his son, with a view to his succeeding to the emperorship, but Henry's ambassadors discovered that there was not the remotest probability of such a scheme proving successful and that the real object in proposing it was to extract from Henry large sums for present exigencies. Francis flattered Wolsey by promising the votes of fourteen cardinals in the French interest on the next vacation of the popedom; while Charles was not behind with costly presents and with comprehensive declarations for the future. The policy of the English court was not straightforward and honourable towards either France or Spain, and it ended, as all tortuous and dishonest policy deserves to end, in failure and contempt. The long continuance of war is almost sure to bring up to the surface social evils which in happier times smoulder on unobserved. It was especially so with the wars of Henry VIII. Each successive Parliament, called for the purpose of supplying the king with necessary ways and means, found itself obliged to deal with domestic questions of increasing difficulty. In previous years it had been easy for the flattering courtiers of a popular king, by talking of victories, to charm the ear of the Commons so wisely, that subsidies and poll-taxes had been voted without much opposition. But the Parliament which met in February 1515, had no victories to talk about. Whether right or wrong in regarding "the realm of France his very true patrimony and inheritance." Henry VIII. had not yet been able "to reduce the same to his obedience." Meanwhile, the long continuance of war expenditure had drained the national exchequer. It is perfectly true that under Wolsey's able management the expenditure had been cut down to an enormous extent, but during the three years of active warfare-1512, 1513, and 1514-the revenues of more than twelve ordinary years had been spent, the immense hoards of wealth inherited by the young king from Henry VIII. had been squandered away, and even the genius of Wolsey was unable to devise means to collect the whole of the taxes which former Parliaments had voted. The temper of the Commons was in the meantime beginning to change. They now, in 1515, for the first time entered a complaint upon the rolls of Parliament, that whereas the king's noble progenitors had maintained their estate and the defences of the realm out of the ordinary revenues of the kingdom, he now, by reason of the improvident grants made by him since he came to the throne, had not sufficient revenues left to meet increasing expenses. The result was that all unusual grants of annuities, &c., were declared to be void. The Commons then proceeded to deal with the large deficiency which previous subsidies had done little to remove. Of the one hundred and sixty thousand pounds granted by the previous Parliament only fifty thousand pounds had been gathered, and all they now attempted to achieve was the collection, under new arrangements, of the remaining one hundred and ten thousand pounds. It was evident that the temper of the people would not bear further trial; and no wonder, for the tax which in the previous year had raised a total of fifty thousand pounds, was practically an income-tax of sixpence in the pound, descending even to the wages of the farm-labourer. In the coming year this incometax of sixpence was to be twice repeated simply to recover arrears of taxation. What would now be thought of a government which should propose to exact from the day-labourer, by direct taxation, a tax equal to between two and three weeks' wages! No additional supplies were voted in the session of November, 1515, and when the Parliament was dissolved, another was not summoned until nearly eight years had elapsed, when the royal exigencies imperatively demanded the money which the Legislature only from mud and urine, and the suburbs kept in could furnish. better order." Two years later, in 1517, the country was alarmed by a second attack of the dreaded Sweating Sickness, in which thousands were cut off. Public business was suspended; Henry and his court sped from place to place; and a universal panic ensued. Writing to Wolsey's physician, Erasmus says, "I am frequently astonished and grieved to think how it is that England has been now for so many years troubled by a continual pestilence, especially by a deadly sweat, which appears in a great measure to be peculiar to your country. I have read how a city was once delivered from a plague by a change in the houses, made at the suggestion of a philosopher. I am inclined to think that this also must be the deliverance for England. "First of all, Englishmen never consider the aspect of their doors or windows;-next, their chambers are built in such a way as to admit of no ventilation. Then a great part of the walls of the house is occupied with glass casements, which admit light, but exclude the air, and yet they let in the draft through holes and corners, which is often pestilential and stagnates there. The floors are in general laid with white clay, and are covered with rushes, occasionally removed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes for twenty years, harbouring expectorations, vomitings, the leakage of dogs and men, ale-droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned. Whenever the weather changes, a vapour is exhaled, which I consider very detrimental to health. I may add that England is not only everywhere surrounded by sea, but is in many places swampy and marshy, (Erasmus, no doubt, meant Essex,) intersected by salt rivers, to say nothing of salt provisions, in which the common people take so much delight. I am confident the island would be much more salubrious if the use of rushes were abandoned, and if the rooms were built in such a way as to be exposed to the sky on two or three sides, and all the windows so built as to be opened or closed at once; and so completely closed as not to admit the foul air through chinks; for as it is beneficial to health to admit the air, so is it equally beneficial at times to exclude it. The common people laugh at you if you complain of a cloudy or foggy day. Thirty years ago if ever I entered a room which had not been occupied for some months, I was sure to take a fever. More moderation in diet, and especially in the use of salt meats, might be of service; more particularly were ædiles appointed to see the streets cleaned Among the receipts used for this attack of the Sweating Sickness were the following:"Take endive, sowthistle, marygold, m'oney and nightshade, three handfuls of all, and seethe them in conduit water, from a quart to a pint, then strain it into a fair vessel, then delay it with a little sugar to put away the tartness, and then drink it when the sweat taketh you, and keep you warm; and by the grace of God ye shall be whole.” "Take half an handful of rew, called herbe grace, a handful marygold, half an handful fetherfew, a handful sorrel, a handful burnet, and half a handful dragons, the top in summer, the root in winte; wash them in running water, and put them in an earthen pot, with a pottle of running water, and let them seethe soberly to nigh the half be consumed, and then draw aback the pot, to it be almost cold, and then strain it into a fair glass and keep it close, and use thereof morn and even, and when need is oftener; and if it be bitter, delay it with sugar candy; and if it be taken afore the pimples break forth, there is no doubt but with the grace of Jesu it shall amend any man, woman, or child." "Another very true medicine.-For t say every day at seven parts of your body, seven paternosters, and seven Ave Marias, with one credo at the last. Ye shal begyn at the ryght syde, under the ryght ere, saying the 'paternoster qui es in cœlis, sanctificetur nomen tuum,' with a cross made there with your thumb, and so say the paternoster full complete, and one Ave Maria, and then under the left ear, and then under the left armhole, and then under the left the (thigh?) hole, and then the last at the heart, with one paternoster, Ave Maria, with one credo; and these thus said daily, with the grace of God is there no manner drede hym.” "A proved medicine against the pestilence, called the philosopher's egg:-Take first an egg and break an hole in one end thereof, and do out the white from the yolk as clean as you can; then take whole saffron and fill the shell therewith by the yolk, then close it at both ends with two half egg shells; then rake it in the embers till it be so hard that you may stamp it to fine powder in a mortar, shell and all; then take as much white mustard as the weight of the egg and saffron is and grind it as small as meal; then take the fourth part of an ounce of a dittony root and as much of turmontell, and of crownutes one dram; stamp this three sundry times very fine in a mortar, |