e the
King had given his consent to it. Clergy and laity were thus allied
against the encroachments of the Roman Curia. Wolsey was now accused
of having transgressed this statute:[108] he had in virtue of his
legatine power given away benefices, and established a jurisdiction by
which that of the King was encroached on; he was found guilty of this
in regular form. He anticipated the full effect of this sentence by
submitting without any defence and surrendering all his property to
the King. It was then that York House in Westminster, with its gardens
and the land adjoining, the Whitehall of later times, passed into the
possession of the crown.[109] He still kept his archbishopric; we find
him soon after at Caywood, the palace belonging to it, and in fact
even busied once more with his buildings. At times the King again
thought of his old counsellor, and to many it quite seemed as though
he might yet recover power. In those days the general belief was, that
Anne Boleyn had exerted her whole influence against it. But most of
the other persons of distinction in court and state were also opposed
to Wolsey. Did he then really, as was imputed to him, try to gain a
party among the clergy, and move the Pope to pronounce excommunication
against the King?[110] A pretext at any rate was found for arresting
him as a traitor: but as he was being brought to the Tower, he died
on the way. He wished, so far as we know, to starve himself to death;
it was at that time supposed that in his wish to die he was aided by
help from others.

Neither for his mental nor for his moral qualities can Wolsey be
reckoned among men of the first rank; yet his position and the ability
which he showed in it, his ambition and his political plans, what he
did and what he suffered, his success and his fall, have won him an
imperishable name in English history. His attempt to link the royal
power with the Papacy by the closest ties rent them asunder for ever.
No sooner was he dead than the clergy became subject to the Crown--a
subjection which could forebode nothing less than this final rupture.

The whole clergy was so far involved in Wolsey's guilt that it had
supported his Legatine Powers, and so had shared in the violation of
the statutes. It shows the English spirit of keeping to the strict
letter of the law, that the King, though he had for years given his
consent and help in all this, now came forward to avenge the violation
of the law. To avert his