[668] So at least the Oxford Wizard said that Sir William Neville had told him.—­Confession of the Wizard:  Rolls House MS. But the authority is not good.

[669] Henry alone never listened seriously to the Nun of Kent.

[670] John of Transylvania, the rival of Ferdinand.  His designation by the title of king in an English state paper was a menace that, if driven to extremities, Henry would support him against the empire.

[671] Acts of Council:  State Papers, vol. i. pp. 414-15.

[672] Henry VIII. to Sir John Wallop:  State Papers, vol. vii. p. 524.

[673] Stephen Vaughan to Cromwell:  State Papers, vol. vii. p. 517.  Vaughan describes Peto with Shakespearian raciness.  “Peto is an ipocrite knave, as the most part of his brethren be; a wolf; a tiger clad in a sheep’s skin.  It is a perilous knave—­a raiser of sedition—­an evil reporter of the King’s Highness—­a prophecyer of mischief—­a fellow I would wish to be in the king’s hands, and to be shamefully punished.  Would God I could get him by any policy—­I will work what I can.  Be sure he shall do nothing, nor pretend to do nothing, in these parts, that I will not find means to cause the King’s Highness to know.  I have laid a bait for him.  He is not able to wear the clokys and cucullys that be sent him out of England, they be so many.”

[674] Hacket to Henry VIII.:  State Papers, vol. vii. p. 528.

[675] Ibid. p. 530.

[676] Hacket to Cromwell:  State Papers, vol. vii. p. 531.

[677] So at least Henry supposed, if we may judge by the resolutions of the Council “for the fortification of all the frontiers of the realm, as well upon the coasts of the sea as the frontiers foreanenst Scotland.”  The fortresses and havens were to be “fortefyed and munited;” and money to be sent to York to be in readiness “if any business should happen.”—­Ibid. vol. i. p. 411.

[678] 25 Hen.  VIII. cap. 19.

[679] A design which unfortunately was not put in effect.  In the hurry of the time it was allowed to drop.

[680] 25 Henry VIII. cap. 14.

[681] 23 Henry VIII. cap. 20.

[682] At this very time Campeggio was Bishop of Salisbury, and Ghinucci, who had been acting for Henry at Rome, was Bishop of Worcester.  The Act by which they were deprived speaks of these two appointments as nominations by the king.—­25 Henry VIII. cap. 27.

[683] Wolsey held three bishoprics and one archbishopric, besides the abbey of St. Albans.

[684] Thus when Wolsey was presented, in 1514, to the See of Lincoln, Leo X. writes to his beloved son Thomas Wolsey how that in his great care for the interests of the Church, “Nos hodie Ecclesiae Lincolniensi, te in episcopum et pastorem praeficere intendimus.”  He then informs the Chapter of Lincoln of the appointment; and the king, in granting the temporalities, continues the fiction without seeming to recognise it:—­“Cum dominus summus Pontifex nuper vacante Ecclesia cathedrali personam fidelis clerici nostri Thomae Wolsey, in ipsius Ecclesiae episcopum praefecerit, nos,” etc.—­See the Acts in RYMER, vol. vi. part 1, pp. 55-7.