Page:History of england froude.djvu/186

164 Wolsey, however, failed in his protest; the advocation was passed, Campeggio left England, and he was lost. A crisis had arrived, and a revolution of policy was inevitable. From the accession of Henry VII., the country had been governed by a succession of ecclesiastical ministers, who being priests as well as statesmen, were essentially conservative; and whose efforts in a position of constantly increasing difficulty had been directed towards resisting the changing tendencies of the age, and either evading a reformation of the Church while they admitted its necessity, or retaining the conduct of it in their own hands, while they were giving evidence of their inability to accomplish tKe work. It was now over; the ablest representative of this party, in a last desperate effort to retain power, had decisively failed. Writs were issued for a Parliament when the legates' departure was determined, and the consequences were inevitable. Wolsey had known too well the