THE LIFE OF

STEPHEN GARDINER.

T

HIS great man was an able lawyer, a learned divine, and shrewd statesman; being bishop of Winchester, and chancellor of England, in the fixteenth century. He was born of obfcure parents at Bury St. Edmond, in the county of Suffolk: but fome very good authorities give us to understand, that he was the illegitimate fon of a prelate nobly defcended and royally allied, who took pains to conceal a circumftance fo difcrediting to himfelf, by beftowing his miftrefs on one of his meaner fervants, whose name this infant bore: there appears to be the greatest probability that this was really the cafe: and, from an original picture of his, painted by Holben, we have good grounds to conclude, that his birth ought to be fixed to 1483.

We know nothing of his education, or the manner in which he paffed his youth; but, that he was fent to the university of Cambridge, where he ftudied in Trinity-hall with great diligence and fuccefs. He was diftinguifhed there by his quick parts, his correct pen, his elegance in writing, and speaking D 2 Latin

Latin, and for his extraordinary file in Greek, which procured him very high compliments, as to his acquifitions in literature, when he was in no condition to reward flatterers. In procefs of time he applied himfelf entirely to the civil and canon laws, for which that learned foundation was very famous.

The reputation he attained at Cambridge, foon opened him a paffage into the favour and confidence of several of the greatest men of that age. First, as fome report, he was taken, under the protection of that generous and potent peer, Thomas, duke of Norfolk; and afterwards received into the family of the ftill more potent cardinal Wolfey, in quality of fecretary: but, whatever hopes he might entertain of rifing at court, he had still academi cal honours in view; and, in 1520, he received the degree of doctor of civil law; and, the year following, he was made doctor of canon-law alfo. There is no queftion that, as the cardinal of York's fecretary, he had a good provifion made for him; but this muft have been by way of penfion or falary; for preferment, fo far as we find yet, he had

none.

In 1525, he was, by an accident, admitted at once into the king's prefence and favour, to the great fatisfaction of the powerful cardinal his mafter; though afterwards, as the politicians remarked, the cardinal funk in the fame proportion as this fervant of his rofe.

At

At this juncture, the king's affairs at Rome were but in an untoward fituation, the Roman pontiff, Clement VII. having addrefs enough to feed the king's agents with fair promises, according to the ftanding maxims of that court; but, in effect, making no progress at all towards the king's point; which was his obtaining a divorce from his queen, Catharine of Arragon. His majefty refolved to fend fome perfon thither, in whom he could entirely confide, and of whofe abilities and attachment he had a like opinion. After much confideration, he fixed upon our doctor, nov become a master of Trinity-hall; and, as bifhop Burnet remarks, efteemed, at that time, the best civil lawyer in England; to whom he joined Edward Fox, provoft of King's College, in Cambridge.

Thefe commiffioners departed in February, 1528. In their journey towards Italy, they executed a commiffion at the court of Paris, where, by warm and vigorous reprefentations. of what their mafter had done, and might do, for king Francis, they obtained that monarch's letter to the pope, in as frong terms as could be defired, in fupport of king Henry's demands. When they came to Ovieto, where the pope then was, Dr. Gardiner ufed free language with his holinefs, fhewed him the danger he was in of lofing the king by playing a double game; and how much injury he would do the cardinal if he failed his expectations. By thefe measures all was obtained which

D 3

which his inftructions required, and a new commiffion, directed to the cardinals Wolfey and Campegius, was iffued.

In the courfe of this long embaffy, the pope, whofe mind was continually perplexed, and to whom the imperial, French, and Ength minifters allowed no quiet, fell dangerously ill; the diforders of his affections operating upon the humours of his body: and this, as might be expected, gave a new turn to the intrigues of Rome.

Dr. Gardiner had as large a fhare in these as any minifter; for he laboured the cause of the cardinal of York, in case the pope's death made way for a new election: he also managed the whole affair with his holiness much to the fatisfaction of the king, the cardinal, and Anne Bullen; all of whom writ him most thankful and affectionate letters; till, finding the pope was determined to do nothing, Henry called Gardiner from Rome, in order to make ufe of him in the management of his cause before the legantine court.

Upon his return, he had the archdeaconry of Norfolk beftowed upon him by bishop Nyx, of Norwich, for whom he had obtained fome favours from the pope. He was installed on the first of March, 1529; and this, as far as appears, was his first preferment in the church but in the ftate his growth was quicker; for the king, having conftant need of his fervice, and not efteeming it proper to ufe it while he belonged to another, took him

from

from his master Wolfey, and declared him fecretary of state.

In this fituation he was confidered as having a large fhare in the management of all affairs; and was particularly advised with by the king, when cardinal Campegio declared that the caufe was avoked to Rome.

When, in confequence of these proceedings, Wolfey declined in favour, in his distress he had recourse to his old fervant, then fecretary; and, though fome have infinuated the contrary, he met with as fincere returns of gratitude and friendship, as he could defire or expect.

The year enfuing opened with the most important fervice, at least as his mafter conceived it, that had been as yet rendered him by Dr. Gardiner; and which, nevertheless, does more honour to his abilities than his virtue and this was, to manage the university of Cambridge fo as to procure their declaration in the king's caufe, after Dr. Cranmer's book fhould appear in fupport of it. This, in conjunction with Dr. Fox, he accomplifhed, though not without much artifice and address, as his own letters fhews; which fufficiently demonftrates, that men, and even great bodies of men, have been much the fame in all ages. After this great exploit, as it was then thought, his afcent in the church was marvelously quickened.

In the fpring of the year 1531, he was installed archdeacon of Leicester, refigning that