Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...

WOLSEY'S GREATNESS 33
Cardinal-minister whose lot it was to stand at the parting
of the ways. But Wolsey's services to his country
canhardlybe too highly estimated. He foundher weak,
almost the derision of Europe. He brought her again
into the politics of the world,if not as a dictator, at
least as an arbiter to whose decision and whose will
foreign nations listened with respect. As a churchman
he might have saved England from a movement which,
as a great historical teacher once wrote, came " to ruin
Art and divide Society." Himself a scholar of the
new learning, an Oxford student at the time when men
were rediscovering the old world and delighting in the
wonders which the old Greek tongue made plain to
them, and inlater years a patron of learned men, he was
yet, though not untouched by vices which even popes
yielded to, a man with a conscience, an ideal, and a rule
oflife. George Cavendish, worthy man, has left an
immortal memorial of him; and historians of to-day
have united, with the most secret documents of his
diplomacy before them, to acknowledge his honesty
and his wisdom. " Thus muchIdare be bold to say,"
wrote his gentleman-usher thirty years after, when he
had seen many changes, and a godly and thorough
reformation to boot, " to say without displeasure to
anyperson, or of affection, that in my judgment 1never
saw this realm in better order, quietness, and obedience
than it was in the time of his authority and rule,
nor justice better ministered with indifferency." He
alone, among Englishmen of his age, had a coherent
scheme, which should assign to his country a definite
c