Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/674

Rh 634 W L W L WOLLTX. the only town, is situated on the Dievencw, and is connected with the mainland by three bridges. It carries on the industries of a small seaport and fishing-town, and has (1885) a population of 5241. Near the site of the present town once stood the ancient and opulent Baltic capital of the Slavs, called Wolin by the Wends, Julin by the Danes, and Wiuetha or Vineta by the Germans. Jomsburg, Hynnisborg, and Waltzborg, names or epithets occurring in several of the northern sagas, are said by Schafarik also to refer to this town. In the 10th and llth centuries &quot;Volin was the centre of an active and extensive trade. Adam of Bremen (d. 1076) extols its size and wealth ; he mentions that &quot;Greeks&quot; and other foreigners frequented it, and that &quot;Saxons&quot; were per mitted to settle there on equal terms with the Wends, so long as they did not obtrude the fact of their Christianity. _ In 1125, how ever, Wolin itself became the seat of a Christian bishopric, which vras removed to Cainmin in 1170. A colony of Scandinavian vik ings, often mentioned in the sagas, nourished in this neighbour hood from about 970 till their stronghold of Jomsburg was de stroyed in 1083 by Magnus of Norway and Denmark. In 1183 Wolin itself was burned by Canute VI. of Denmark. Within modern times Wollin was captured by the Swedish in 1630 and 1759, and by the Brandcnburgers in 1659 and 1675. A tradition long reigned, though now proved to be baseless, that the Wendish Vineta had been overwhelmed by the sea, and some submarine granite blocks near Damerow, in Usedom, were popularly recognized as its ruins. These are still pointed out as such to strangers. WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY. See GODWIN, MARY W., and SHELLEY, MARY W. WOLSEY, THOMAS (c. 1471-1530), cardinal, was born at Ipswich, and seems to have been the eldest son, as perhaps he was the eldest of all the four known children, of Robert Wolsey and his wife Joan. The name Wolsey, spelt Wulcy by both Robert and Thomas, is a diminutive of Wulf, that is, Wolf, and clearly proves their descent from those Teutonic folk who gave names to two English counties, to the southern one of which the Wolseys belonged. Simple repetition has made it commonly believed that Robert Wolsey was to trade a butcher. The assertion was first set afloat by enemies of the great cardinal, and was intended to be disparaging. The prob ability, however, seems to be that he was really a grazier, and perhaps also a wool merchant. He certainly belonged to the better class of merchants, was connected with wealthy people, and himself died possessed of lands and pro perty in and about Ipswich. Fairly trustworthy tradition points to a house in St Nicholas Street there as occupy ing the site of his own dwelling. According to Fiddes, supported as to the year by Cavendish, Wolsey s birth happened in March 1471, though contemporary evidence would place it some years later. His education began doubtless at the grammar school of his native town, where he showed himself an apt scholar. That reputation was fully sustained when he passed to Magdalen College, Oxford, for he took his B.A. degree at the early age of fifteen, whence he was known as &quot;the boy bachelor.&quot; He became M.A. with such credit and distinction that he had conferred upon him a fellowship and the mastership of the grammar school attached to his college, of which last in 1498 we find him bursar. The whole course of college training was scholastic ; it strengthened and trained the intellect for actual life. Wolsey is said to have been deeply versed in the subtleties of Aquinism ; certain it is he remained wholly unaffected by the Greek revival of the Renaissance, and looked but indifferently upon its followers. From arts he went on to the study of divinity, in which the unfriendly Polydore Virgil is compelled to admit he was &quot; not unlearned,&quot; but of which he did not become bachelor till 1510. That there was in fact, from whatever cause, some delay in Wolsey s taking orders is evidenced by his father s will, made on the last day of September 149G, probably just before his death. That instrument appointed Joan sole legatee, and directed &quot;that if Thomas my son be a priest within a year next after my decease &quot; he, or, failing him, another priest, should be paid ten marks, equal to about GO present money, for a year s singing of masses &quot; for me and my friends.&quot; Among Wolsey s pupils at Magdalen school were three sons of the marquis of Dorset. So well was the marquis satisfied with the progress of his children that he invited Wolsey to spend with him the Christmas holidays of what must have been the year 1499. When Wolsey returned to Oxford it was with the presentation to the quiet Somerset parish of Lymington. In the October following he was inducted. He had not been long placed when a neighbouring squire, Sir Amias Paulet, put him in the stocks. The cause of this indignity is not clear ; but it was remembered and resented with all the keenness attaching to an injustice suffered. Fifteen years after, as soon as he became lord chancellor, Wolsey summoned Paulet before him, administered a severe rebuke, and ordered him not to leave London without licence. From then till 1523 Paulet s name disappears from the state papers, where previously its occurrence had been frequent. In September 1501 Dorset died, and that event finally decided Wolsey to quit Lymington. Paulet s proceeding had not affected Wolsey s character, for he now became one of the private chaplains of Henry Dean, archbishop of Canterbury. But any hopes he may have founded on this appointment were soon blighted by the death of Dean in February 1503. Dean s executors, of whom the chief was the favoured servant of Henry VII., Sir Reginald Bray, deputed the carrying out of his instructions respecting his funeral to Wolsey and another chaplain. Through Bray, probably. Wolsey next obtained a chaplaincy with another favourite agent of Henry s, Sir Richard Nanfan, deputy- lieutenant of Calais. Nanfan was an old man ; and so excellent did Wolsey s business capacity prove that the knight soon entrusted to him the whole work of the deputyship. In 1505 Nanfan resigned and returned to England to pass his latter days in peace; but so thoroughly had his chaplain gained his esteem that, &quot; through his instant labour and especial favour,&quot; Wolsey became chaplain to Henry VII. himself, and when in 1506 Sir Richard died Wolsey was one of his executors. Henry was a cold master, and did not offer much oppor tunity for making way in his favour, but Wolsey imme diately set himself to win the approval of the leading privy councillors, Bishop Fox and Sir Thomas Lovell. As usual lie succeeded. And he retained their friendship to the last, his relations with Fox being perhaps the most beautiful episode in all Wolsey s life. Through their recommendation he began his political life by a mission, probably in 1507 and to the emperor Maximilian. According to Cavendish, who gives Wolsey himself as his authority, not only was the embassy performed in the extraordinarily short space of about eighty hours, but Wolsey took upon him to add to his instructions some items which he afterwards found the king had sent after him. The expedition and bold intelligence displayed established him in the king s good opinion. Other missions ensued, one of them to Scotland in the spring of 1508, all executed to the royal satisfaction. Under Henry high ecclesiastical promotion came by political service. On the 2d February 1509 Wolsey, who by this time held several minor preferments, was collated to the deanery of Lincoln. Within three months Henry died and his son came to the throne. Already had Wolsey ingratiated himself with the young Henry, and almost at once com menced his unprecedentedly rapid rise to power. Lyming ton having been resigned by July, he in October received a grant of The Parsonage, part of the forfeited property of Sir Richard Empson ; and another month brought him the office and title by which he was chiefly known for the next four years, that of king s almoner. From that time forward