GARDINER, Stephen, bishop of Winchester and lord chancellor of England, was the illegitimate son of Dr Lionel Woodville or Wydeville, dean of Exeter, and brother to Elizabeth, queen-consort of Edward IV. He received his academical education at Cambridge, and, after passing some time in the family of the Duke of Norfolk, was appointed secretary to Cardinal Wolsey. This situation initiated him in the conduct of affairs, and proved the foundation of his rise at court. In 1525 be was employed to draw up the plan of the alliance with Francis I.; in Í527 he was sent to Rome to negotiate the divorce of Henry VIII. from Catharine of Aragon; and he advanced so rapidly in favour, that he was styled primary secretary of the most secret councils, and described by the cardinalminister as dimidium sui, or the half of himself. During his residence at Rome, the pope having fallen dangerously ill, Gardiner set all engines to work to endeavour to obtain the keys provisionally for Wolsey, and secured the suffrages of abouta third of the college of cardinals in behalf of his master; but this scheme was rendered abortive by the recovery of Clement. In the matter of the divorce, Gardiner reported that all solicitations at Rome would, in his opinion, be fruitless; that the pope was immoveable in the resolution to do nothing himself; but that he might be induced to confirm such a sentence as the king could obtain from the legates. Persuaded of the soundness, as well as sincerity of this opinion, Henry recalled Gardiner, and, toon after his arrival, declared him secretary of state. About this time, 1529, he obtained his first ecclesiastical preferment, the archdeaconry of Norfolk, which was conferred on him by Bishop Nix of Norwich. Gardiner was now particularly consulted by the king in the affair of the divorce; and when Cardinal Campejus declared the cause evoked to Rome, he found out Cranmer, and introduced him to the king, a step which proved the ruin of Wolsey. In 1531 he was installed in the archdeaconry of Leicester, and soon afterwards advanced to the rich see of Winchester. As Bishop of Winchester he assisted in the court, where, in May 1533, sentence was passed by Cranmer, declaring the king’s marriage with Catharine null and void; and the same year he went as ambassador to the French king at Marseilles. On his return, being called on to acknowledge the king’s supremacy, he readily complied, and published a defence of it, entitled De Vera et Falsa Obedientia. In 1535 he resumed his embassy to France, during which he declared against a religious league with the protestant princes of Germany, and advised a political alliance. In 1538 he was sent as ambassador to the German diet at Ratisbon, where he incurred the suspicion of maintaining a secret correspondence with the pope. On the death of Cromwell, long his rival in the king’s favour, the university of Cambridge elected him its vice-chancellor; and, in return for this honour, Gardiner, on all occasions, gave it the benefit of his interest at court. But, like other courtiers, he was subject to all the vicissitudes of Henry’s capricious favour; and, with all his suppleness and address, he on several occasions narrowly escaped imprisonment, if not something worse. This, indeed, is the more remarkable, as the proof’s of his want of honest and sound principles are .manifold. He was ever the servile and ready instrument of the king’s will, and made no scruple in taking part in any proceeding, however disgraceful in itself, which seemed calculated to advance his interest or secure his safety. In the proceedings against Catharine of Spain, Anne of Cleves, Catharine Howard, Anne Boleyn, Sir Thomas More, and Bishop Fisher, Gardiner was equally active in lending himself to the vindictive caprices of the despot whom he served; and no motive of gratitude, no suggestion of humanity, no awakening of conscience, seem ever to have prevented him from yielding the basest compliance with the wishes of the tyrant. In the reign of Edward VI. he opposed the Reformation, and being deprived for disobedience and contempt, was imprisoned in the Tower; but on the accession of Queen Mary he was set at liberty, and again invested with power. The unprincipled sycophant under the wayward and ferocious Henry, now proved himself an unrelenting persecutor under the bigoted Mary; and it is even said that he was transported with joy on hearing of the martyrdom of Latimer and Ridley. But his career was now approaching to its close. He died on the 12th of November 1555, at the age of seventy-two. It is said that on his deathbed the retrospect of his life and conduct filled him with horror, and that he often repeated the words, Erravi cum Petro, sed non flevi cum Petro, I have sinned with Peter, but I have not wept with Peter. His principal works are, 1. De V era et Falsa Obedientia, 1534; 2. Palinodia dicti libri;

3. A Necessary Doctrine of a Christian Man, set forth by the King’s Majestie of England, 1543; 4. An Explanation and Assertion of the true Catholic Faith, touching the most blessed Sacrament of the Altar, 1551; 5. Confutatio Cavillationum quibus Sacrosanctum Eucharistiae Sacramentum ab impiis Capernaitis impeti solet, 1551, composed while a prisoner in the Tower.