Beheaded, saying cool and calm,
‘Cut not my beard, that’s done no harm.’
His friend Erasmus, Logic’s Master,
Trimmed his sails and ’scaped disaster.
A third, Dean Colet who St. Paul’s
School London into being calls.
Wolsey 1530
In fifteen-thirty Wolsey great,
A Cardinal and Man of State,
From Butcher’s son had risen high.
Reader! consult your Shakespeare nigh.
Blamed by some; by others praised;
He fell; but still the pile he raised
Most nobly graces Hampton Court.
Give Wolsey then a tender thought.
His main ambition that the King
Should be supreme in everything;
Thomas Cromwell
And Thomas Cromwell followed suit
To make his master absolute
Head of the Church within his realm.
These two most able at the helm;