In chastening verse has our great moralist thus portrayed the proud Churchman:-- "In full-blown dignity see Wolsey stand, Law in his voice, and fortune in his hand: To him the Church, the realm, their pow'rs consign; Through him, the rays of regal bounty shine: Turn'd by his nod, the stream of honour flows; His smile at once security bestows. Still to new heights his restless wishes soar; Claim leads to claim, and pow'r advances pow'r; Till conquest unresisted ceased to please; And rights submitted, left him none to seize! At length, his Sov'reign frowns--the train of state Mark the keen glance, and watch the sign to hate; Where'er he turns, he meets a stranger's eye; His suppliants scorn him, and his followers fly. Now drops at once the pride of awful state, The golden canopy, the glittering plate, The regal palace, the luxurious board, The liveried servants, and the menial lord! With age, with cares, with maladies oppress'd, He seeks the refuge of monastic rest. Grief aids disease, remember'd folly stings, And his last sighs reproach the faith of Kings."--JOHNSON. Whatever appertains to the record of his appalling fall is treasurable as an addition to the narrative in our popular histories. A few points of novelty and interest as regards Wolsey have been derived from a State manuscript of the reign of Henry VIII., now in the possession of Sir Walter C. Trevelyan, Bart. F.S.A. a junior member of whose family was one of the chaplains to Henry VIII.; and through him it may have found its way to the venerable seat of Nettlecombe, in the county of Somerset, where this MS. relating to domestic expenses and payments has for some centuries been deposited. In this manuscript Wolsey is spoken of by his double title of Cardinal of York and Bishop of Winchester, in connexion with a payment to him of one thousand marks, out of the revenues of Winchester. By the above entry, confirmed by a subsequent passage in Cavendish, it is clear that this was a pension of 1,000 marks; and that in consideration of the necessities of the Cardinal, it was to be allowed him beforehand. After all his pomp and prosperity, after all his vast accumulation of wealth, after all his piles of plate and heaps of cloth-of-gold, and costly apparel, Wolsey, in March 1530 (judging only from this entry), was reduced to the necessity of obtaining a loan of a thousand marks. This, too, to carry him to his exile at York, whither his enemies had by this date induced the fickle, selfish, and luxurious King to banish his great favourite.