All agree, however, that this celebrated man had great abilities, much learning, and also an amount of general knowledge considerably in advance of the age. He had, however, many failings, and some vices, and either the natural bent of his mind, or the dangerous condition of his position, induced him to adopt a policy so tortuous, that even now it is difficult to trace the motives of some of the wisest and best, as well as those of some of his most injudicious and apparently cruel actions. He was born at Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk, but the year of his birth as well as his parentage he ever held secret. Some believe his parents were very obscure persons; but Dugdale, a great authority in such matters, asserts that he was the illegitimate son of a prelate nobly descended and royally allied--namely, of Dr. Lionel Woodville, Bishop of Salisbury, and brother of Queen Elizabeth Woodville, consort of King Edward IV. Certain it is that for many years neither he nor his brother bishop, Bonner, born under the same circumstances, ever used the surnames by which they were afterwards known. One called himself Dr. Stephens, the other Dr. Edmunds, until Gardiner, on obtaining place, assumed the surname he has made so celebrated. At Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he completed his education, Gardiner was early distinguished for his talents and his quick parts, especially for his extraordinary skill in Greek, and for the grace with which he spoke and wrote Latin. In process of time he applied himself to the study of Civil and Common Law, and his reputation both as a scholar and a lawyer speedily made him known to some of the famous men of that age. He was first taken under the protection of a generous and powerful patron, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, but soon afterwards was brought to the notice, and then received into the household of Cardinal Wolsey, as secretary to that great statesman, then in the zenith of his power. He was thus early initiated into the skilful yet dread policy that for so long a period made the powerful Cardinal the _de facto_ ruler of this country. A mere accident gained for Gardiner the favour of the King. Wolsey and the Emperor of Austria had been at one time such intimate friends that the latter, when writing (which he did frequently) to the Cardinal, always signed his letters with his own hand, subscribing himself, "Your son and cousin, Charles." After the battle of Pavia, when the French King was taken prisoner, Wolsey unexpectedly changed sides, and from being a friend of the Emperor's, became a strong partisan of France's. This sudden change of sentiment may possibly have arisen from compassion, but Guiscard suggests another and less worthy motive.