THE FALL OF THE CARDINAL In October, 1529, Cardinal Wolsey lost the King’s favour, and fell into disgrace. He was forced to give up the Great Seal, sign an indenture acknowledging that he had incurred the guilt of Praemunire, forfeit most of his lands, possessions, and offices, and retire to his seat at Esher[142]. His faithful biographer, Cavendish, gives a very touching account of the Cardinal’s surrender of his goods, his removal from the scene of his labours, and his enforced living in ‘estraunge estate[143].’ Few fallen ministers have ever been in a more pitiful position. To have incurred the ill-will of his master, as he had done, meant certain ruin in those days; and besides this he had turned the people against him by the part he had taken in the divorce. Anne Boleyn, whose influence at the Court was at its height, detested him for his failure to bring it about; the clergy and common people hated him for attempting it. The few friends who retained their fidelity to him in his trouble were prevented from showing it by their consciousness of the royal and popular displeasure. As Wolsey’s servant, counsellor, and friend, Cromwell naturally felt the keenest anxiety lest he should be involved in his master’s ruin. It has been already shown that his action in suppressing the monasteries had made him very generally hated; and now that the prop that had supported him in his difficult and unpopular task was gone, he had great need to look to himself, if he did not wish to fall with the Cardinal. That he was perfectly well informed of the position in which he was placed is proved by a letter which he received from his friend Stephen Vaughan, written at Antwerp, October 30, 1529, which tells him that he is more hated for his master’s sake than for anything which he has wrongfully done to any man[144]. Another letter from his companion in Wolsey’s service, Sir Thomas Rush, who was employed with him at Ipswich, gave him further warning of the evil reports that were circulated about him[145]. It is no wonder that he was seriously alarmed.