Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/749

 WOLSEY

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WOLSEY

labour of children and women in manufacturing, and which created division inspectors for the supervision of labour. "Wolowski", says M. Jules Rambaud, who studied his work at length, "was animated by sincere piety, concerning which we should not be mis- led by some epigrams on the ancient economic privi- leges enjoyed by the clergj-."

Among Wolowski's works were: "Des soci^t^s par actions" (183S); "Des brevets d'invention et des marques de fabrique" (1840); "De I'organisation du travail" (1844); "Etudes d'6cononiie pohtique et de statistique" (1848); "La banque d'Angleterre et les banqucs d'Ecosse" (1867); "L'or et I'argent " (1870). He pubUshed (1S56) a translation of Roscher's "Principles of Political Economy".

Lev.\8.seur, La vie et les travaux de Wolowski in Annates du conservatoire ties arts et metiers (1876); Rambacd, L'afuire fcon, de Woloieski (Paris, 1882); Lappert in Conrad and Lexis, Handworterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, VII (Jena, 1901).

Georges Goyatj.

Wolsey, Thom.is, Cardinal, Archbishop of York, b. at Ipswich, the usually accepted date, 1471, being probalily three or four years too early; d. at Leicester Abbey, 20 November, 1330. His father, Robert Wulcy (or Wolsey), was a man of substance, owning property in Ipswich, but it is not known that he was a butcher as commonly reportefl. The cardin;d himself always wTote his n;mie as "Wulcy". He was educated at Oxford, where he took his degree at the age of fifteen, winning the title "the boy bach- elor". About 1497 he was elected fellow of Magdalen, and after becoming M.A. was aijpointed master of the adjoining school. Thefather of three of his pupils, the M.'trquis of Dorset, presented him the rectory of Liming- ton in .Somerset in October. l.")00. He had been ordained priest at Marlborough (10 Alarch, 140S; by the suf- fragan of t lie Bishop of Salis- bury. He also received ot her benefices, and became one of the domestic chaplains to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry Dean. On the archbishop's death (1.503) he became chap- lain to Sir Richard Nan f. -in, who, perceiving his remarkable talent for administration, entrusted him with his financial affairs and introduced him to the notice of King Henry VH. When Sir Richard died in 1.507 A\olsey became one of the court chaplains, and was befriended by the in- fluential Bi.shop of Winchester, Richard Fox. He shortly acquired the livings of Redgrave in Suffolk (1506) and Lydd in Sus.sex (1.508), and about this time the king began to employ him in the diplomatic serv'ice; it was probably then that he made the well- known journey into Flanders and back as special envoy to the Emperor Maximilian with such rapidity that when he returned on the third day the king, believing he had not yet started, rebuked him for remi.ssness. As Mjister of the Rolls his grasp of practical affairs enabled him to initiate reforms which greatly accelerated the business of the Court. On 2 February, 1.509, he was made dean of Lincoln, and on the accession of Henry VIII, which happened shortly after, he received an assurance of the con- tinuance of royal favour in his appointment as

Cardin." Portrait by Holbein, a1

almoner. During the next year he supplicated for the degrees of B.D. and D.D., and obtained the

additional hvings of St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London, and Torrington in Devonshire, as well as a prebend in Hereford cathedral. On 17 Feb., 1511, he became a canon of Windsor and soon after registrar to the Order of the Garter.

By 1512 he was exercising marked influence in political affairs and his share in the royal favour was already attracting the dishke of the old nobihty. In foreign and domestic business alike the king fol- lowed his counsel and daily entrusted more power to his hands. Fresh preferment continued to [lOur in on him. He became successively dean of Hereford (1512), dean of York (1513), dean of St. Stephen's, Westminster, and precentor of London. He began to keep some state and when he accompanied the king to France in June, 1513, he was followed by a train of two hundred gentlemen. He was present through Henry's successful campaign, and at the king's request the pope named him Bishop of Tour- nay; but he never obtained possession and later on surrendered his claim to the bishopric for an annual pen- sion. Instead he was ap- pointed Bishop of Lincoln, the papal bulls being dated 6 February, 1514, and he was consecrated at Lambeth palace on 26 March. In the following September he suc- ceeded Cardinal Bainbridge
 * is Arclihishop of York, and

oil 10 .SrprfiiihiT, 1515, was rri'.iti'ii rardiiud with thetitle "S. Ca'cilia trans Tiberim", receiving the hat in West- minster Abbey on 18 No- vember. A month later (24 December) he became Lord Chancellor of England, and had thus attained at the early age of forty or (here-
 * ibouls the highest dignities,

s)initu:il and temporal, that ■A siilijiil could hope for. Ills [lower with the king was so great that the Venetian Ambassador said he now might be called "Ipse rex" (the king himself).

Of Wolsey's foreign pol- icy only the main lines can be indicated. His first efforts were to lead the king back to his father's policy of an alliance with France in opposition to Ferdinand of Spain and the Em- peror Maximihan. But the PVcnch conquest of Milan at the battle of Marignano in 1515 checked this scheme, and led Wolsey to make new treaties with Maximihan and Ferdinand. After Ferdinand's death the cardinal's [lolicy entered on a new phase, calculated to meet the entirely new situation. Ferdi- nand's successor, Charles V, now held Spain, the Indies, Sicily, Naples, and the Netherlands with reversion of the duchy of Austria. Rivalry between the two young monarchs, Francis and Charles, thus became inevitable, and Wolsey saw the advantage which England would derive from the sense each h.ad of the value of the English alliance. At this time the pope was ende.avouring to raise a crusade against the Turks, and Wolsey adroitly succeeded in effecting a universal peace to which the pojjc and emperor as well as Francis and Charles were parties. lender cover of this peace Wolsey pushed forward his favourite policy of alliance with France. A treaty with France was carried through by the cardinal himself and the other councillors were

L Wolsey

Christ Chureh, Oxford