of having written _Ego et rex meus_, though true in
fact,[291] is false in intention, because no Latin scholar could put
the words in any other order; but the Cardinal's mental attitude is
faithfully represented in the meaning which the familiar phrase was
supposed to convey.

[Footnote 284: _Ven._ Cal., ii. 1287.]

[Footnote 285: _L. and P._, ii., 1380.]

[Footnote 286: _Ibid._, ii., 3558.]

[Footnote 287: _Cf. Ven. Cal._, ii., 671, 875,
894.]

[Footnote 288: _L. and P._, ii., 4438.]

[Footnote 289: _Ibid._, ii., 4664. On other
occasions Wolsey took it upon himself to open
letters addressed to the King (_Ibid._, iii.,
2126).]

[Footnote 290: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1215.]

[Footnote 291: It will be found in _Ven. Cal._,
iii., p. 43; Shakespeare, _Henry VIII._, Act III.,
Sc. ii.]

His arrogance does not rest merely on the testimony of personal (p. 111)
enemies like the historian, Polydore Vergil, and the poet Skelton, or
of chroniclers like Hall, who wrote when vilification of Wolsey
pleased both king and people, but on the despatches of diplomatists
with whom he had to deal, and on the reports of observers who narrowly
watched his demeanour. "He is," wrote one, "the proudest prelate that
ever breathed."[292] During the festivities of the Emperor's visit to
England, in 1520, Wolsey alone sat down to dinner with the royal
party, while peers, like the Dukes of Suffolk and Buckingham,
performed menial offices for the Cardinal, as well as for Emperor,
King and Queen.[293] When he celebrated mass at the Field of Cloth of
Gold, bishops invested him with his robes and put sandals on his feet,
and "some of the chief noblemen in England" brought water to wash his
hands.[294] A year later, at his meeting with Charles at Bruges, he
treated the Emperor as an equal. He did not dismount from his mule,
but merely doffed his cap, and embraced as a brother the temporal head
of Christendom.[295] When, after a dispute with the Venetian ambassador,
he wished to be friendly, he allowed Giustinian, with royal condescension,
and as a special mark of favour, to kiss his hand.[296] He never
granted audience either to English peers or foreign ambassadors until
the third or fou