[Footnote 320: There is no doubt about his eagerness for the power which would have enabled him to carry out a reformation. As legate he demanded from the Pope authority to visit and reform the secular clergy as well as the monasteries; this was refused on the ground that it would have superseded the proper functions of the episcopate (_L. and P._, ii., 4399; iii., 149).] [Footnote 321: _L. and P._, ii., 629, 2637, 4068. Lark became prebendary of St. Stephen's (_Ibid._, iv., _Introd._, p. xlvi.).] [Footnote 322: Called Thomas Wynter, see the present writer's _Life of Cranmer_, p. 324 _n._ Some writers have affected to doubt Wolsey's parentage of Wynter, but this son is often referred to in the correspondence of the time, _e.g._, _L. and P._, iv., p. 1407, Nos. 4824, 5581, 6026, 6075. Art. 27.] [Footnote 323: _Ibid._, iii., 1284; iv., p. 2558; ii., 2930.] Repellent as was Wolsey's character in many respects, he was yet the greatest, as he was the last, of the ecclesiastical statesmen who have governed England. As a diplomatist, pure and simple, he has never been surpassed, and as an administrator he has had few equals. "He is," says Giustinian, "very handsome, learned, extremely eloquent, of vast ability and indefatigable. He alone transacts the same business as that which occupies all the magistracies, offices, and councils of Venice, both civil and criminal; and all State affairs are managed by him, let their nature be what it may. He is thoughtful, and has the reputation of being extremely just; he favours the people exceedingly, and especially the poor, hearing their suits and seeking to despatch them instantly. He also makes the lawyers plead gratis for all poor suitors. He is in very great repute, seven times more so than if (p. 119) he were Pope."[324] His sympathy with the poor was no idle sentiment, and his commission of 1517, and decree against enclosures in the following year, were the only steps taken in Henry's reign to mitigate that curse of the agricultural population. [Footnote 324: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1287; Giustinian, _D sp._, App. ii., 309; _L. and P._, iii., 402.]