7J9 



WOLSEY, THOMAS. 



WOOD, JOHN. 



800 



always a dean or priest; a treasurer a knight ; and a comptroller an 

 esquire ; which Lave always within his house their white staves. . . . 

 In his privy kitohen he had a master-cook, who went daily in damask, 

 satin, or velvet, with a chain of gold about his neck." But on the 

 other hand, he promoted learning with consistent liberality : the 

 University of Oxford is indebted to him for its Cardinal's (now Christ- 

 church) College; and for several professorships, which, with the college 

 he founded in hU native town of Ipswich, had only a short existence ; 

 he likewise encouraged learned persons by patronage and gifts. He 

 was himself no mean scholar, and he is said to have assisted the king, 

 by his intimate knowledge of the works of his favourite author, 

 Thomas Aquinas, and other theological writers, when he composed 

 his treatise against Luther. He drew up, in 1523, the Latin rules for 

 his school of Ipswich, which are extant; they are printed in the 

 'Essay on a System of Classical Instruction' (London, John Taylor, 

 1825), and contain the course of Latin instruction which Wolsey pre- 

 scribed for the eight classes into which he divided the school. 



The see of Durham, to which he had been recently appointed, 

 Wolsey resigned for that of Winchester. It does not appear that he 

 encouraged any change of doctrine among his clergy ; his .adherence 

 to the Roman Catholic Church waa never shaken. The Reformation 

 indeed made little progress, though many of its seeds were sown in 

 his time. His abuse of ecclesiastical revenues and duties gave con- 

 vincing evidence of the necessity of change : such rapid translation 

 from dignity to dignity, so large a number of offices held continually 

 in the same hands, while their duties were for the most part neg- 

 lected, were evils that could not long be tolerated. The exercise of 

 his legatine powers with regard to the examination and suppression of 

 the monasteries, his conduct likewise in the matter of Queen Cathe- 

 rine's divorce, gave strength to the dawning Reformation. 



To circumstances connected with the divorce Wolsey 's fall is mainly 

 attributable : he advised the king to put away Catherine, but not to 

 marry Anne Boleyn, and thus he offended both the actual queen and 

 the queeu elect. An oppressive and illegal taxation had made him 

 unpopular with the multitude ; while at court there were powerful 

 enemies labouring continually to poison the king's mind against the 

 favourite, whom he had treated with such unliniited confidence, and 

 trusted with such unparalleled authority. The dukes of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, and Lord Rochford, Anne Boleyn's father, and Anne herself, 

 united in their efforts to overthrow him, and eventually succeeded in 

 their machinations. At the commencement of the Michaelmas term, 

 1529, two informations were filed against him in the Court of King's 

 Bench, charging him with having, as legate, transgressed the statute 

 of pracmunire. Wol?ey admitted the charge, " of which he was 

 technically guilty, inasmuch as he had received bulls from the pope 

 without a formal licence." (Sir J. Mackintosh, ' Hist. Eng.,' vol. ii., 

 p. 166.) "The court pronounced their sentence, that he was out of 

 the protection of the law, that his land.-", goods, and chattels were 

 forfeited, and that his person was at the mercy of the king." He was 

 ordered to retire to Esher, a country-house belonging to the see of 

 Winchester, and was so closely shorn of all magnificence as nearly to 

 bo wanting in the ordinary comforts of life. Many of his friends 

 deserted him ; his followers and dependents showed the most devoted 

 attachment to their master in his distress. He sank into a state of 

 deep dejection. Henry temporarily reinstated him in the following 

 year (1530). Wolsey " was restored to the see of Winchester and the 

 abbey of St. Alban's, with a grant of 60001., and of all other rents not 

 parcel of the archbishopric of York. Even that great diocese was 

 afterwards restored. He arrived at Cawood Castle about the end of 

 September 1530, where ne employed himself in magnificent prepara- 

 tions for his installation on the archiepiscopal throne." His popularity 

 in the north was increased by his hospitality and affability. His ene- 

 mies at court however were bent upon his ruin, and the king's deter- 

 mination to cast off the pope favoured their design, for under these 

 circumstances it was evidently little desirable that a cardinal should 

 fill the principal offices in the state. The Earl of Northumberland 

 received orders to arrest him for treason, and to bring him to London 

 to stand his trial. With what particular act he was charged we are 

 not informed, and with the obsequious servants of the tyrant it little 

 mattered. He proceeded towards London on his mule, but by the 

 way he was attacked with a dysentery. As he entered the gate of the 

 monastery of Leicester, he said, " Father Abbot, I am come to lay my 

 bones among you ;" and so the event proved : the monks carried him 

 to his bed, upon which, three days afterwards, he expired (November 

 1530). Shakspere has little altered the words he addressed on his 

 deathbed to Kyngston, the lieutenant of the Tower, though in the play 

 they are given to Cromwell " If I had served God as diligantly as I 

 have done the king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs." 



Wolsey attained his elevation by a winning address, combined with 

 shrewdness, talent, and learning; his ambition was unlimited, his 

 rapacity great, he was arrogant and overbearing, and extremely fond 

 of splendour and parade. But he was a great minister, enlightened 

 beyond the age in which he lived, diligent in business, and a good 

 servant to the king ; for when his authority was established he checked 

 the king's cruelty, restrained many of his caprices, and kept his 

 passions within bounds : the latter part of Henry's reign was very far 

 more criminal than that during which the cardinal presided over his 

 counsels. 



WOOD, or A WOOD, ANTHONY, was born in the city of Oxford, 

 December 17, 1632. His father was a gentleman of independent pro- 

 perty. Anthony was sent to a private . Latin school in 1640, and in 

 1641 was removed to New College, Oxford, but in 1644, in conse- 

 quence of the civil disturbances, was sent to a school at Thame. In 

 1646 his mother placed him under his brother Edward, in Trinity 

 College, Oxford, and he went to him once or twice a day to receive 

 instruction. On the 26th of May 1647, he was matriculated in the 

 University of Oxford as the son of a gentleman, and entered Merton 

 College, October 18, 1647. About 1650 or 1651 he began to learn to 

 play on the violin, at first without instruction, but afterwards under 

 a teacher. He seems to have attained to great skill on the instrument, 

 and was for many years a member of a musical club in Oxford, in 

 which concerted pieces were performed, both vocal and instrumental, 

 by men of ,some eminence as musicians. Painting was also another of 

 his favourite pursuits, but there seems to be no evidence of his skill 

 in that art. He graduated A.B. in 1652. Heraldry, which also 

 became one of his studies, was perhaps better suited to his antiquarian 

 tastes ; his sedulous study in the public library of the University 

 attracted the attention of Dr. Thomas Barlow, the head keeper of the 

 library, who treated Anthony with much kindness, gave him every 

 assistance in his power, and even allowed him to take books and 

 manuscripts to his home. 



In December 1655, Wood took the degree of M.A. Dugdale's ' Anti- 

 quities of Warwickshire' came out in 1656, and was read by Wood 

 with great delight and admiration. His fondness for the study of 

 antiquities was confirmed, and he now began to transcribe the monu- 

 mental inscriptions and arms in the parish chinches and college 

 chapels of the city and University of Oxford. After the Restoration 

 he obtained leave from Dr. Wallis, in 1G60, to consult the university 

 registers, monuments, and other documents in the Schools Tower. 

 This was a valuable fund for him, and here he may be said to have 

 laid the foundation of his ' History and Antiquities of Oxford.' In 

 1667 Wood went to London with a letter of introduction from Dr 

 Barlow to Sir William Dugdale, by whose influence he obtained leave 

 to peruse the manuscripts in the Cotton Library and the records in 

 the Tower. 



Wood having completed his ' History and Antiquities of Oxford,' 

 the University offered him 100Z. for the copyright, which he accepted 

 in October 1669, and the payment was made in March 1670. This 

 purchase was made with the intention of having the work translated 

 into Latin for the use of foreigners, which was done under the inspec- 

 tion of Dr. Fell, and the work was published at Oxford in 1C74, in 2 

 vols. folio, with the title of ' Historia ct Antiquitates Universitatis 

 Oxoniens-is.' Wood complained bitterly of this translation ; and Dr. 

 Thomas Warton, who may be supposed to be a less prejudiced judge, 

 remarks, "I cannot omit the opportunity of lamenting that Dr. Fell 

 ever proposed a translation of Wood's English work, which would 

 have been infinitely more pleasing in the plain natural dress of its 

 artless but accurate author. The translation hi general is allowed to 

 be full of mistakes : it is also stiff and unpleasing, perpetually disgust- 

 ing to the reader with its affected phraseology." 



lu 1691 Wood published his 'Athena) Oxonienses, an exact History 

 of all the writers and bishops who have had their education in the 

 University of Oxford from 1500 to 1695, to which are added the Fasti 

 or Annals of the said University,' London, folio, 2 vols. in one. The 

 work is written in very slovenly English, but it contains a valuable 

 fund of materials, selected with care, though not always with judg- 

 ment and without prejudice. He was prosecuted in the vice-chan- 

 cellor's court of the university for some remarks in the 'Athena? 

 Oxonienses,' on the character of the late Earl of Clarendon, and 

 received a sentence of expulsion. He was also attacked by Bishop 

 Burnet, and replied in a ' Vindication,' &c., 4to, 1693. 



Wood died November 29, 1695, aged sixty-five. He was a large and 

 strong man. He retained his faculties to the last, and just before he 

 died gave directions for the burning of a great mass of manuscripts, 

 and left his books and such of his manuscripts as he considered of 

 value to the University of Oxford : they were deposited in the Ash- 

 molean Museum. 



In 1721 a second edition, 'corrected, and enlarged with the addition 

 of above 500 new lives from the author's original manuscripts,' was 

 published in London, 2 vols. folio. Philip Bliss published at Oxford 

 'Wood's Athena) Oxonienses continued to 1800,' 4to, 2 vols., 1813: to 

 the 3rd volume, published in 1817, was added 'Fasti Oxonienses, or 

 Annals of the said university, with Notes and Additions,' 4to. The 

 Rev. John Qutch, M.A., registrar of the University of Oxford, pub- 

 lished in 1786-94, at Oxford, 'The History and Antiquities of the 

 University of Oxford, now first published in English from the original 

 Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, by Anthony Wood ; with a Con- 

 tinuation to the present time, by the Editor,' 3 vols. 4to. The first 

 volume of a new edition of Dr. Bliss's edition of the Atheuse Oxoni- 

 ensis, containing the Life of Wood, was published by the Ecclesiastical 

 History Society in 1848; but no farther progress was made in the work, 

 the society having been dissolved, a circumstance much to be regretted, 

 as Dr. Bliss is known to have accumulated a great amount of valuable 

 additional information since the publication of his former edition. 



WOOD, JOHN, commonly spoken of as ' Wood of Bath,' was an 

 architect of considerable repute in the time of George II., in ability 



