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 to the Low Countries after obtaining the pardons for Boston at Rome. On the other hand, we have a statement by Cardinal Pole that he was at one time clerk or bookkeeper to a Venetian merchant, and as the cardinal was personally acquainted with his employer the fact is beyond dispute. And from Pole's statement it would seem that this was in Italy before his return to England. His employer therefore could not have been, as Professor Brewer supposed, Antonio Bonvisi, who lived in London, and was besides a Lucchese, not a Venetian.

About 1513, after his return to England, Cromwell married Elizabeth Wykes, the daughter of an old neighbour, Henry Wykes of Putney, who had been usher of the chamber to Henry VII. Chapuys and Bandello agree that he married the daughter of a shearman, and, as the former says, served in his house, meaning apparently as his apprentice. But, strangely enough, Mr. Phillips finds that, though her paternity is undoubted, she was at this time the widow of one Thomas Williams, yeoman of the guard. It would appear, however, from the combined testimony, that her father, the usher of the chamber, was a shearman, and that Cromwell proposed to carry on one department of his own father's business, for which his experience in the Low Countries must have been a good preparation, for much of the traffic with those parts was in English wool and woollen cloths, and, his father's fulling-mill being close upon the river, foreign traders came up to Putney to make their purchases. Success in business often leads on from one line to another, and Cromwell became first perhaps a money-lender, and afterwards a lawyer, as he was originally intended to be, for we have frequent references to him in both capacities. Cecily, marchioness of Dorset, writes to him, as her son the marquis's servant, meaning perhaps his legal adviser in the division of the family property, to send her certain beds and bedding and deliver certain tents and pavilions in his custody to her son Leonard (, Letters, 1st ser. i. 219). But even as late as 1522 or 1523, after he had long been practising as a solicitor, the dressing of cloths appears to have been a distinct part of his business (Calendar of Henry VIII, vol. iii. Nos. 2624, 3015).

He was then ‘dwelling by Fenchurch in London’ (ib. Nos. 2461, 2577, 2624); but in 1524 we find him removed to Austin Friars (ib. vol. iv. Nos. 166, 1620, 1881, 2229, &c.), where he remained for about ten years, his residence there being ‘against the gate of the Friars’ (ib. vol. vii. No. 1618). During the whole of this period he was rapidly rising into prominence, and before the end of it he became the most powerful man in England next the king. He had already attracted the notice of Wolsey, who on his promotion to the see of York in 1514 appointed him collector of his revenues. It was probably by Wolsey's influence that he got into parliament in 1523, and here he seems to have distinguished himself by a very able and eloquent speech in answer to the king's demand for a contribution in aid of the war with France. The king had declared his intention of invading France in person, and was himself present in parliament—it would almost seem even in the House of Commons—during their deliberations. Cromwell asked what man would not give goods and life, even if he had ten thousand lives, to recover France for his sovereign? He enlarged upon the necessity of chastising the ambition and faithlessness of the French nation; but he confessed the prospect of the king endangering his person in war put him ‘in no small agony.’ He then discussed the financial dangers of an overbold policy, for all the coin and bullion of the realm, he reckoned, could not much exceed a million of gold, and would be exhausted in three years; and he intimated that there were difficulties in the enterprise which had not existed in former days. No doubt they might easily take Paris, but their supplies would be cut off, and the Frenchmen's way of harassing an enemy would bring them to confusion. In the end he insisted that the safest course was the proverbial policy of beginning with Scotland, and when that country was thoroughly subjugated it would make France more submissive. Thus ingeniously he pleaded the cause of the taxpayer, without saying anything that could possibly be distasteful to the court.

It is not certain that this speech was actually delivered; but it exists to this day in manuscript in the hand of one of Cromwell's clerks (ib. vol. iii. No. 2958), and there can be no reasonable doubt of its authorship. It may even have served the purposes of the court to some extent; for as a matter of fact Henry did not invade France in person, as he had indicated that he would do. The man who was capable of using such ingenious arguments was pretty sure not to be lost sight of. He was not only skilful in reasoning, but had a very captivating manner, a good business head, and doubtless an extremely retentive memory, although Foxe's statement that he learned the whole of Erasmus's New Testament off by heart is worthy of little credit, especially considering that he dates it at a time when that work had not yet appeared. Of his pleasing address and con=