is surely admissible? But
no: Wolsey, too, must be put out of court. Wolsey was
a courtier and a timeserver. Wolsey was a tyrant's
minion. Wolsey was--in short, we know not what
Wolsey was--or what he was not. Who can put confidence
in a charlatan? Behind the bulwarks of such
objections, the champion of the abbeys may well believe
himself secure.

And yet, unreasonable though these demands may be,
it happens, after all, that we are able partially to gratify
them. It is strange that of all extant accusations
against any one of the abbeys, the heaviest is from a
quarter which even Lingard himself would scarcely call
suspicious. No picture left us by Henry's visitors
surpasses, even if it equals, a description of the condition
of the Abbey of St. Albans, in the last quarter of
the fifteenth century, drawn by Morton, Henry VII.'s
Minister, Cardinal Archbishop, Legate of the Apostolic
See, in a letter addressed by him to the Abbot of St.
Albans himself.

We must request our reader's special attention for
the next two pages.

In the year 1489, Pope Innocent VIII.--moved with
the enormous stories which reached his ear of the
corruption of the houses of religion in England--granted a
commission to the Archbishop of Canterbury to make
inquiries whether these stories were true, and to proceed
to correct and reform as might seem good to him. The
regular clergy were exempt from episcopal visitation,
except under especial directions from Rome. The
occasion had appeared so serious as to make extraordinary
interference necessary.

On the receipt of the Papal commission, Cardinal
Morton, among other letters, wrote the following:--

"John, by Divine permission. Archbishop of Canterbury,
Primate of all England, Legate of the Apostolic
See, to William, Abbot of the Monastery of St. Albans,
greeting.

"We have received certain letters under lead, the copies
whereof we herewith send you, from our most holy Lord
and Father in Christ, Innocent, by Divine Providence
Pope, the eighth of that name. We therefore, John, the
Archbishop, the visitor, reformer, inquisitor, and judge
therein mentioned, in reverence for the Apostolic See,
have taken upon ourselves the burden of enforcing the
said commission; and have determined that we will
proceed by, and according to, the full force, tenour, and
effect of the same.

"And it has come to our ears, being at once publicly
notorious and brought before us upon the testimony of
many witn