80 
and also of Henry with Arthur’s widow. His letter to the 
King on his marriage is still preserved, damaged though it is 
by the fire which destroyed the old Houses of Parliament, and 
is a courtly, dignified, and loyal address. Upon the election 
of Innocent VIII., who had been in exile during the Ponti- 
ficate of Alexander VI., Adrian prophesied that the time 
had come for him to depart from Rome. It must have caused 
a pang to leave his Palace, now the Palace de Giraud Torlonia, 
which had been built for him by Bramante, and doubtless it 
was he who had helped to bring the first architect of St. Peter’s 
into notice. 
Michael Angelo lived within a stone’s throw, and may have 
sought his patronage when first he came to Rome, for he must 
have met the Cardinal when executing the statue of Julius II. 
at Bologna (1507 A.D.), and now he often visited his neigh- 
bour in his palace, known by the arms of England sculptured 
on its front, for Adrian intended it to be the residence of all 
future Ambassadors. 
Whitehall was tendered to Henry VIII. as a peace offering, 
but Adrian’s palace was built for England—“‘ I am entirely an 
Englishman,” he had written. 
The blow came not from the Pope, but from Wolsey and his 
followers. Bambridge, Cardinal Archbishop of York, and the 
Bishop of Worcester were Adrian’s fellow representatives 
and rivals at Rome, and accused Adrian and Polydore Vergil, 
his representative in the diocese of Bath and Wells, of lack of 
earnestness in the King’s cause, and when Bambridge died 
suddenly, and the Bishop of Worcester was suspected of 
poisoning him, the accusation then was that Adrian showed 
no joy when no poison was discovered. 
The Pope’s hostility was yet further aroused by a letter 
which Adrian had sent to England commenting upon him, 
being meanly returned to Leo. Incensed though the Pope 
was he did not take away the Collectorship until urged by 
Henry, at the prompting of Wolsey, and even then hinted in 
his letter to the King that he feared the request was not 
expressive of Henry’s own wishes and desires. Adrian left 
Rome and went to Venice, whence the Pope, by every means 
in his power, endeavoured to persuade him to return, pledging 
his own word for his safety and that of the Emperor and the 
King of France, but Adrian preferred obscurity in the palace 
of his friends, the Pesaro, who have immortalized the ex- 
Cardinal by representing him as St. Peter in the picture of 
