ness, so that whatever he should speak might be regarded as delivered by the cardinal himself. When the embassadors came to Orvieto, where the pope then was, Gardiner remonstrated freely with him on the double game which he was playing in the affair of the divorce, and shewed him the danger that he was in of losing the king, by the policy which he adopted. His address and management succeeded so well, that he obtained a commission from the pope, addressed to the cardinals Wolsey and Campeggi, empowering them to determine the business. The industry, spirit, and ingenuity which he displayed on this occasion, were highly applauded by the king, the cardinal, and Anne Bullen, the latter of whom sent him a letter of thanks for his services, and assurances of her disposition to render him every grateful return in her power. Having sent Fox home with an account of their negociations, Gardiner continued some time longer at Rome, where the dangerous illness of pope Clement VII. gave rise to various intrigues for securing a majority of votes in the sacred college, in case of his demise. As Wolsey had long possessed the ambition of filling the chair of St. Peter, he did not neglect the opportunity which such a state of things presented of strengthening his interests among the cardinals; and Gardiner acted with so much zeal and liberality on his behalf, that he secured the suffrages of at least one third of the whole number. The recovery of the pope, however, put an end for a time to the hopes of the different candidates; but notwithstanding his disappointment Wolsey expressed his satisfaction with the efforts made by Gardiner in his cause, and was loud in the commendations and praises which he bestowed upon him. Another service which he rendered to the cardinal during his embassy, proved pe-culiarly grateful to him; and that was the reconciling the pope to the endowment of his two colleges at Oxford and Ipswich, out of the revenues of the dissolved lesser monasteries. It appears from a letter which Gardiner wrote to the king, after he had thoroughly studied the temper and policy of the papal court, that he gave it as his decided opinion, that all farther solicitations to the pope on the subject of the divorce would be fruitless; but that he might probably be brought to confirm such sentence as the king might obtain from the legates. Convinced of the soundness of his judgment in this opinion, and relying both on his abilities and attachment to his cause, the king recalled Dr. Gardiner from Rome, resolving to employ his talents in managing his suit before the legantine

court. On this account he would not suffer the proceedings to be begun before the cardinals until Gardiner's return, whom he appointed to act as one of his chief council in that court. After Gardiner's return to England, he had the archdeaconry of Norfolk bestowed upon him by bishop Nyx of Norwich, in return for some favours which, during his residence at Rome, he had obtained from the pope for that prelate. This appears to have been his first preferment in the church; but in the state he made a more rapid progress. By his capacity for business, and activity in conducting it, he had so far recommended himself to the king, that he resorted to the use of his talents in all matters of moment; and as his majesty was desirous of having him entirely in his service, he took him from his situation of secretary to Wolsey, and appointed him to the office of secretary of state. His new appointment introduced Gardiner to a considerable share in the management of public affairs; and he was more particularly consulted by the king on the subject of the divorce, which lay nearest his majesty's heart. When in consequence of the artifices of the papal court the legate Campeggi had been instructed to declare, that the final judgment in that cause must be pronounced at Rome, and that himself and his colleague could proceed no farther in it, Gardiner and Fox, as we have already seen in the life of Cranmer, obtained his opinion on the subject, which proved the means of extricating the king out of a difficulty, which was then generally considered to be insuperable. Bishop Burnet informs us, that though Gardiner concurred with Fox in communicating Cranmer's advice to the king, yet it was "with this difference, that Gardiner had a mind to make it pass for their own contrivance; but Fox, who was of a more ingenuous nature,, told the king from whom they had it." The new method of proceeding in the affair of the divorce, which was adopted in pursuance of Cranmer's advice, contributed to hasten the ruin of Wolsey, who had become suspected by the king of being inimical to that measure, and had provoked his resentment on other accounts, of which notice will be taken in their proper place. In his distress the cardinal had recourse to the assistance and interest of his old servant, the secretary; and much pains have been taken to prove that, on this occasion, Gardiner shewed all those returns of gratitude and respect towards his old master, which he could desire or expect. We cannot but think, however, that there is no ittle ground for entertaining doubts respecting his forwardness and activity in serving the in

terests of the disgraced cardinal. The very carnest, humble, and even mean terms in which Wolsey solicited Gardiner to apply to the king on his behalf, and the frequency of his solicita tions for that purpose, his continually plying him with letters, of which Cromwell, whom he calls his trusty friend, was the bearer, place Gardiner's zeal heartily to serve his old master in a very problematical light. And though, a short time after some pressing letters from Wolsey to Gardiner, the cardinal received his pardon, and a considerable sum of money, this appears to have been rather the result of the personal regard which the king still retained for his old minister and favourite, than of any warm solicitations of Gardiner in his favour. In the year 1530 Dr. Gardiner was employed, conjointly with Dr. Fox, to procure from the university of Cambridge a declaration in favour of the king's cause. He appears now to have been for some time master of Trinity-hall, but we are not informed when he was elected to that station. By his influence as a principal member of the university, and by much artifice and address, he and his colleague succeeded in the object of their mission, though not without much opposition, as we have already seen in the life of Dr. Fox. The readiness and diligence which Gardiner manifested in carrying the king's wishes into execution, were soon amply rewarded by valuable ecclesiastical promotions. In the spring of 1531 he was installed archdeacon of Leicester, when he resigned the archdeaconry of Norfolk; and in the September following he resigned his new preferment in favour of Dr. Fox. In the same year he was incorporated doctor of laws in the university of Oxford, and in the month of November consecrated bishop of the rich see of Winchester. Dr. Gardiner, it seems, was not apprised, at the time, of the king's design of conferring this bishopric upon him, for Henry would frequently scold and abuse him as though he had been unworthy of any favour; and at the instant when he granted him this preferment, put him in mind of it. "I have," said the king, "often squared with you, Gardiner," a word which he used for that species of rebuke, "but I love you never the worse, as the bishopric which I give you will convince you." It appears that Henry had let Gardiner into the secret, that he could sometimes look very angry, and talk very loud, without meaning much harm. After this discovery, Gardiner could stand a royal battling without much anxiety; or, to use his own words to the duke of Somerset, "He folded it up in the matter, and bore

VOL. IV.

it patiently." He has himself related an incident of this kind, which happened before he was so well acquainted with the king's temper as he was afterwards. He had been once joined with the earl of Wiltshire in a commission relating to some affairs of consequence, which had not been managed in such a manner as to give satisfaction to the king. Upon their appearing before him, Henry treated Gardiner, in the presence of the earl, with such a storm of violent and coarse language, as quite confounded him. But before they parted the king took Gardiner into his chamber, and told him, that he was indeed very angry, yet not particularly with him, though he had used him so because he could not take quite so much liberty with the earl. Henry had also another practice, which he called whetting. This was scolding with pen and ink; and the bishop says, that when some of the courtiers saw letters to him in that style, they looked upon him as undone. while he himself, who was better acquainted with the king's temper, entertained no such apprehensions. In the year 1533, bishop Gardiner sat in the court with archbishop Cranmer, when the latter prelate pronounced the sentence by which queen Catherine's marriage was declared null and void. In the same year he was sent embassador to France, whither he was soon followed by Dr. Bonner. Their instructions were to attend an interview between the pope and the French king at Marseilles, and to discover the designs of the holy father and the French monarch, which Henry and his council suspected to be of a hostile nature against England. They there intimated the appeal of Henry VIII. to a general council, if the pope should pretend to proceed to judgment in his cause; and also the appeal of the archbishop of Canterbury to the same tribunal, if any design should be avowed of excommunicating him, and interdicting his church. which Bonner has given of Gardiner's behaviour while employed on this embassy, reflects little credit on the temper and spirit of the latter. Upon Gardiner's return from his French embassy, he was called upon, together with the other bishops, to acknowledge the king as supreme head of the church, and to take the oath appointed for that purpose. With this summons he not only readily complied, but also published a defence of the king's supremacy, entitled "De Vera Obedientia," His pen was made use of upon other occasions, and he never declined vindicating the king's divorce, his sub sequent marriage, and his emancipation of the kingdom from the tyranny of the papal see;

RR

The account

upon which subjects his writings, at the time, acquired him very high reputation. But notBut notwithstanding his ready compliance with all the king's measures, and his writings in defence of them, Gardiner was zealously attached, on political motives, to the superstition of the Romish church, and omitted no opportunity of oppos ing the attempts which were made to introduce the principles of the protestant reformation. When in 1535 archbishop Cranmer, who had begun a provincial visitation, sent a monition to Gardiner, acquainting him that he should visit his diocese, the latter, who never loved the archbishop, and was jealous of his reforming spirit, left no artifice unattempted to evade his metropolitan's visitation, and thereby to prevent his inspection of the corruptions of the diocese of Winchester. In the following year Gardiner strenuously opposed, both in the convocation, and in private with the king, different measures which were taken by the protestant party to disseminate knowledge and information among the people; and, in particular, a proposal which was made in the convocation by archbishop Cranmer, and carried, that a petition should be presented to the king for leave to make an English translation of the Bible. About this time he resumed his embassy to the court of France, where he prevailed on the French king to remove from his dominions Dr. Reginald Pole, then dean of Exeter, as an enemy of his master, king Henry, which circumstance proved the origin of the animosity which afterwards subsisted between those churchmen. While Gardiner was in France, he was applied to by Cromwell, in consequence of the king's directions, for his opinion respecting a project of a religious league with the protestant princes of Germany; but as he was sensible that such a measure would contribute to spread the principles of the reformers, he declared himself decisively against it, artfully stating his objections on grounds of civil policy, and recommending a political alliance, strengthened by subsidies, as what would be better adapted to answer the king's wishes. In the year 1538, he was sent embassador, with sir Henry Knevit, to the German diet at Ratisbon, where he is said to have acquitted himself well with respect to the objects of his commission; but he there fell under a suspicion of holding a secret correspondence with the pope, on the subject of rendering popery triumphant again in England. This suspicion occasioned a misunderstanding between him and his colleague, who transmitted to the king the particulars on which it was founded. Whether the king was satisfied that

these particulars were fabricated by the enemies of Gardiner, as the latter maintained, or to whatever cause it might be owing, the bishop was not brought into any trouble on this ac count during the reign of Henry. That prince, notwithstanding his rupture with the pope, was still strongly attached to most of the superstitious doctrines of the Romish church; and Gardiner, after his return from Germany, laid hold of every favourable opportunity of strengthening that attachment. In particular, he represented to the king, that nothing would contribute more effectually to secure him from the machinations of the papal court, both at home and abroad, than a spirited prosecution of heretics, and especially of the Sacramentarians, by which name those were distinguished who denied the doctrine of the real presence. As Henry had ever been a zealous advocate for this doctrine, and would not permit his subjects to avow sentiments that varied from his own creed, he was the more easily persuaded to exercise severity towards those who ventured to depart from it. from it. About this time one John Lambert, whom bishop Burnet calls a learned and a good man, who had been formerly minister to the English factory at Antwerp, and had there imbibed the principles of the reformers, after hearing Dr. Taylor preach on the doctrine of the real presence, waited upon him, and presented to him in writing his reasons for disbelieving that doctrine. This paper was carried to archbishop Cranmer, before whom, and bishop Latimer, Lambert was summoned, and admonished by them to retract what he had written: but in vain; and Lambert, fatally for himself, made his appeal to the king. Of this circumstance Gardiner took advantage, and persuaded Henry to proceed solemnly and severely in the affair, that he might convince the world how well qualified he was to be the head of the church, and the champion of orthodoxy. Accordingly, Lambert was brought to trial before the king, who appeared with great state in Westminster-hall, attended by many of the prelates, nobility, clergy, and king's council. After the king had sternly commanded him to declare his opinion concerning the sacrament of the altar, his majesty and ten of the bishops endeavoured to refute it; and the disputation, such as it was, continued for five hours, till at length the poor man, fatigued, confounded, and brow-beaten, was reduced to silence. The king then asked him if he was convinced? and whether he would live or die? He answered, "that he committed his soul to God, and submitted his body to the king's clemency." But