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 really to have done his best in his behalf. He pleaded also warmly, though unsuccessfully, that the foundation at Ipswich might be spared, while Christ Church probably owes its existence to his efforts. In February 1530 he visited Cambridge, and took a leading part in the endeavours that were being made to win over the university to conclusions favourable to the divorce. His efforts, however, were strongly opposed by a large section of the academic body, and his servant Christopher was maltreated. The royal appreciation of his services was shown in the following July by a grant of the arable lands and rents of the honour of Hanworth. In 1531 he was collated to the archdeaconry of Leicester, and in October of the same year was incorporated LL.D. of Oxford. Although in relation to the divorce he still advocated ‘a middle course,’ he appears by this time to have altogether lost Catherine's confidence, and he was the compiler of the reply to the allegations made by her counsel in Rome. Henry now again evinced his sense of his desert by urging Clement to promote him to the see of Winchester. Gardiner was consecrated to the office on 27 Nov. 1531. Although, according to his own statement, he received 1,300l. less from the bishopric than his predecessor, Richard Fox, had done, he paid a fine of 366l. 13s. 4d. for his temporalities (Letters and Papers Henry VIII, v. 507). On 29 Dec. he again proceeded as ambassador to the court of France. He had now become so useful to his royal employer that Henry declared that in his secretary's absence he felt as though he had lost his right hand. Gardiner's conduct of the business entrusted to him gave entire satisfaction to Henry, and on 7 March 1531–2 he returned to England. Shortly after his return his skill as a canonist led to his services being again called into requisition in the preparation of the notable reply of the ordinaries to the address of the House of Commons to King Henry. Gardiner took up, as he generally did throughout his career, very high ground in defence of the privileges of his order, and maintained the right claimed by the bishops to make such laws as they might deem fit for ‘the weal of men's souls.’ Even Henry appears to have shown his displeasure at the tone of the document. Gardiner was present at Greenwich when, on 5 June, Henry transferred the great seal from Sir Thomas More to Sir Thomas Audley. There is some ground for supposing that he was at this time contemplating a less subservient line of action. He displayed remarkable assiduity in preaching in his diocese, and Volusenus, the Scottish scholar, who in 1532 dedicated to him his commentary on Psalm 1., takes occasion to praise in glowing terms the energy he thus exhibited and the example he was setting to the other bishops. In September of the same year Clement told the imperial ambassador in Rome that Gardiner had changed his mind on the whole question of the divorce, and had consequently left the English court (ib. v. 561). It is, however, in perfect keeping with that reputation for double dealing which he bore throughout his career, that in the same month he accompanied Henry to Calais with a personal following of twenty-four men; that in the following April Fisher on being placed under confinement was confided to his custody; that he was one of the assessors in the court which in the following month pronounced Catherine's marriage null and void; and that at the coronation of Anne Boleyn (8 June) he, along with the Bishop of London, ‘bore up the laps of her robe’ (Harl. MS. 41, fol. 2). He was one of those before whom Frith, the martyr, was summoned to appear at St. Paul's (20 June 1533); Frith had once been Gardiner's pupil at Cambridge, and the latter seems to have done his best to save him from his fate (Grenville MS. 11990; Letters and Papers, vi. 600).

On 3 Sept. he was again sent into France on the divorce business, proceeding first to Nice and then to Marseilles, and returning before the close of the year. In April 1534 he acted as one of the adjudicators to settle a dispute between the clergy and the parishioners of London respecting tithes. In the same month he resigned his post as secretary to King Henry, and was permitted to retire to his diocese. He was, however, shortly after again summoned to court, and the report was prevalent in London that his committal to the Tower was imminent. There seems to be no doubt that his position at this time was one of a considerable difficulty. Henry regarded him with suspicion, imputing to him a ‘colored doubleness’ in his conduct with respect to the visitation of the monasteries, while he appears to have become obnoxious both to Cromwell and to Cranmer. At length, on 10 Feb. 1534–5, Gardiner took the decisive step and signed his renunciation of the jurisdiction of the see of Rome (, Concilia, iii. 780); and shortly after (not in 1534, as Strype and others) published his famous oration, ‘De vera Obedientia.’ To the policy therein indicated he adhered with consistency almost to the close of his career. His arguments were devoted to establishing the following three main conclusions: (1) ‘That human tradition ought to be regarded as inferior to divine precept. (2) That the Roman pontiff has no legitimate power or jurisdic-