Year: 1866




/ suppose the most Of my readers know
something of English history. IF you have
studied it with any degree of attention, you
will probably remember the name of Cardi-
nal Wolsey. We win give a sketch of his
life before speaking Of his school; for memo
ries are sometimes treacherous, and you
may have forgotten what you have read
about him.


Thomas Wolsey was born at Ipswich, a
pleasant town in Suffolk, near the junction
of the rivers Orwell and Clipping. Some
say that he was the SON Of private gentle
man but the most generally received opin-
ion Is. chat he was the son of butcher.
However this may be, it is pretty certain
that his parents were both able and willing
TO give him good education. After some
preliminary instruction he was sent to Mag
dalen College, Oxford, where it would
appear he must have worked hard for we
tind that, blythe time he was fifteen years OF
age, he had takena degree; being called the
boy bachelor, because Of his youth.


He had the art of making friends wherever
he vent and this was, probably, due as
much to his winning and pleasing manners,
for which he was noted in early life, as to
his great natural ability and his keen iudg-
ment of character. There is some truth,
you see, in the proverb, Manners make
the man. am sorry to tellyou, however,
that, Notwithstanding his great talents, his
conduct was not always good; and even
after he was settled at Lymington, in Som
ersetshire' he was put in the stocks for some
nisdemeanor Hs


In those days the clergy could FIJI any
secular Office in the State and we find that
soen after Wolsey became chaplain to King
Henry VII, he was employed on an embassy
thatrequired much tact and dispatch. He
managed the affair eleverly; for he had been
to Brussels, transacted what he was commits
stoned to do, and was back again in London
before the king knew that he had setout.


When Henry VIII, came to the throne.
Holsey s rise was even more rapid than be-
fore and so necessary was he to the young
king, that soon the reins of fGovernment fell
almost entirely into his hands Instead,
however, of using his great influence for
good, he lent himself to the vices aud folles
Of his master, that he might the moi easily
retain the power be had obtained for, as is
often the case, the more be had, the more
be wished to have. Increase OF appetite
had grown by what IL fed on. TAe mag
nitieence of his heuse and the dress OF his
a eGdants we're In keeping with his own
e1travagant and gorgeous attire. Few could
vie With him, and scarcely royalty itsslf.
His household was usually composed olive
hundred people, among whom might be-
found earls, knights and esquiges, He
built a palace at Hampton Court, and made
d present of 1t to the king But Wdfsey
had to learn, from better expelieaee, the
truth of that passage of Holy Writ, Put
not youi. trust in princes His insolence
and ambition raised him up many enenles'
When at thn zenith 0f his power ind gram
deur, the king caused him to be arrested on
some frivolous pFetext, and he was ~ once
deprived Of All his wealth. For lIttle; time,
1t is said, he was almost ID want of ordinary
comforts His unworthy friends fcrsook
him but, to their honor be ii spoken, his
domestics showed great attachment 10 their
fallen master s


In the following year, $50, the capriclous
king reinstated him in some of his honors ],
but this return of prospeity did not last
long. In the autumn Of the same year,
when, not having learned wisdom hv the