It was on Sunday, November 18, 1515, that the ceremony was performed in Westminster Abbey. Mass was sung by Archbishop Warham (with whom Wolsey had already quarrelled), Bishop Fisher acting as crosier-bearer. The Bishop of Lincoln read the Gospel, and the Bishop of Exeter the Epistle. The Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, the Bishops of Winchester, Durham, Norwich, Ely, and Llandaff, the Abbots of Westminster, St. Alban’s, Bury, Glastonbury, Reading, Gloucester, Winchcombe, and Tewkesbury, and the Prior of Coventry, were all in attendance ‘in pontificalibus.’ All the magnates of the realm were collected to swell the pomp of the ceremony. Before this august assemblage and crowds of spectators Dean Colet had to deliver an address to Wolsey.
Colet preaches the sermon.
As was usual with him, he preached a sermon suited to the occasion, more so perhaps than Wolsey intended. First speaking to the people, he explained the meaning of the title of ‘Cardinal,’ the high honour and dignity of the office, the reasons why it was conferred on Wolsey, alluding, first, to his merits, naming some of his particular virtues and services; secondly, to the desire of the Pope to show, by conferring this dignity on one of the subjects of Henry VIII., his zeal and favour to his grace. He dwelt upon the great power and dignity of the rank of cardinal, how it corresponded to the order of ‘Seraphim’ in the celestial hierarchy, ‘which continually burneth in the love of the glorious Trinity.’[552] And having thus magnified the office of cardinal in the eyes of the people, he turned to Wolsey—so proud, ambitious, and fond of magnificence—and addressed to him these few faithful words:
Colet’s address to Wolsey.
‘Let not one in so proud a position, made most illustrious by the dignity of such an honour, be puffed up by its greatness. But remember that our Saviour, in his own person, said to his disciples, “I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,” and “He who is least among you shall be greatest in the kingdom of heaven;” and again, “He who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”’ And then, with reference to his secular duties, and having perhaps in mind the rumours of Wolsey’s partiality and the unfairness of recent legislation to the poorer classes, he added—‘My Lord Cardinal, be glad, and enforce yourself always to do and execute righteousness to rich and poor, with mercy and truth.’
Then, addressing himself once more to the people, he desired them to pray for the Cardinal, that ‘he might observe these things, and in accomplishing the same receive his reward in the kingdom of heaven.’
This sermon ended, Wolsey, kneeling at the altar, had the formal service read over him by Warham, and the cardinal’s hat placed upon his head. The ‘Te Deum’ was then sung, and, surrounded by dukes and earls, Wolsey left the Abbey and passed in gorgeous procession to his own decorated halls, there to entertain the King and Queen, in all pomp and splendour, bent upon pursuing his projects of self-exaltation, regardless of Colet’s honest words so faithfully spoken, and little dreaming that they would ever find fulfilment in his own fall.[553]
Wolsey made Lord Chancellor.
Five weeks only after this event, on December 22, Warham resigned the great seal into the King’s hands, and the Cardinal Archbishop of York assumed the additional title of Lord Chancellor of England.[554] On the same day, Parliament, which had met again on November 12 to grant a further subsidy, was dissolved, and Wolsey commenced to rule the kingdom, according to his own will and pleasure, for eight years, without a Parliament, and with but little regard to the opinions of other members of the King’s council.
III. MORE’S ‘UTOPIA’ (1515).