he Cross in the churchyard, where was a
scaffold set up. On this he seated himself under his cloth of estate,
his two crosses on each side of him; on his right hand, sitting on the
place where he set his feet, the Pope's ambassador, and next him the
Archbishop of Canterbury; on his left hand, the Emperor's ambassador,
and next him the Bishop of Durham (Rusthall); and all the other
bishops, with other noble prelates, sat on two forms out right forth,
and then the Bishop of Rochester made a sermon by the consenting of
the whole clergy of England, by the commandment of the Pope, against
one _Martinus Eleutherus_ and all his works, because he erred sore,
and spake against the Holy Faith; and denounced them accursed which
kept any of his books; and there were many burned in the said
churchyard of his said books during the sermon. Which ended, my Lord
Cardinal went home to dinner with all the other prelates."

The Bishop of Rochester was, of course, Fisher. He was both learned
and pious. Burnet says he strongly disliked Wolsey, because of the
latter's notoriously immoral life. Fisher, though in his unflinching
conservatism he regarded the proceedings of Luther with hostility,
was anxious, as were More and Erasmus and Colet, for reformation on
Catholic lines. He, like them, favoured the new learning, and even
declared that the Continental reformers had brought much light to
bear upon religion. But he opposed the King's divorce, and refused to
acknowledge his supremacy over the Church, and was beheaded on Tower
Hill, June 22nd, 1535. There was no act of Henry which more thoroughly
excited popular horror.

When Charles V. came to England, in 1522, Wolsey again said Mass at
St. Paul's, with twenty bishops to cense him. It was on this occasion
that he changed the meeting-place of Convocation from St. Paul's to
Westminster, that it might be near his own house. Skelton, the poet,
who hated Wolsey, thereupon wrote the following distich:--

"Gentle Paul, lay down thy sword,
For Peter, of Westminster, hath shaven thy beard."

In 1524, Francis I. was taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia,
whereupon the sympathy of England for his successful rival was shown
by a huge bonfire in front of St. Paul's, and the distribution of many
hogsheads of claret. On the Sunday following, Wolsey sang Mass, and
the King and Queen, with both Houses of Parliament, were present. Once
more (Shrove Tuesday, 1527) the great Cardinal came in dignity; it