During the years 1524-1525 he was actively engaged in the Cardinal’s service, and received many letters on legal business which he transacted for his master[63]. Seekers for Wolsey’s mercy or patronage invariably came to him, as a likely means of getting their wishes granted. In several cases requests to the Cardinal are addressed directly to the ‘right worshipful Mr. Cromwell.’ It is evident from the tone of the letters which he received, that to obtain his favour was the first and most important step towards gaining that of his master. He was usually spoken of as ‘Councillor to my Lord Legate,’ and was pre-eminent above all the rest of Wolsey’s advisers. It has been thought by some that the Cardinal employed him in connexion with his political schemes, but this is an error. Cromwell began modestly, as befitted his lowly birth and humble origin, and at this time, at any rate, was employed merely as an agent, chosen for his wonderful knowledge of human nature and his great capacity for business. In the beginning of 1525, however, Wolsey felt that he had in Cromwell a servant sufficiently capable to be trusted with the performance of a work which was nearest the Cardinal’s heart, namely the destruction of some of the smaller monasteries to furnish funds for the building of his college at Oxford. So on the 4th of January of that year, he commissioned Sir William Gascoigne, William Burbank, and Thomas Cromwell, to survey the monasteries of Tykford, Raveneston, Poghley, Medmenham, Wallingford, and Fynchingbroke and their possessions, and on the same day he appointed Thomas Cromwell and John Smyth as attorneys for the site and circuit of Thoby, Blakamore, Stanesgate, and Tiptree, which had been granted to John Higden, Dean of Cardinal’s College[64].