Page:Hutton, William Holden - Hampton Court (1897).djvu/78

34 place in European politics, and to her Church a definite place among European Churches, Reformed, Catholic, certainly not Protestant, and as little Ultramontane. And more, he alone had the audacity, the foresight, and the power which might have carried out such a scheme, and have placed the English Church and State where he willed. But against the almost superhuman strength of one man, joined with the complication of Continental changes in a period of fears within and fights without, he could not stand; and with his fall passed the greatness of his master's reign. He had said that men should be careful how they put an idea into Henry's head, for no man could take it out again; and More, a servant no less loyal though less strong, had said that strange things would happen when the lion knew his strength. Both came to feel the truth of their own statements.

The pathos of Wolsey's career is irresistibly connected with Hampton Court. He sought out the place and bought it, and built it, and made all ready that it might be his home. Then his master coveted it, and he gave it up, the most generous of offerings that subject ever made to sovereign. The great house he built remains as the perpetual memorial of his greatness, and of how inextricably his career was bound up with that of his king. We can think of Wolsey at Hampton Court; yet, as we think, our thoughts pass insensibly to Henry VIII.

The Calendars of State Papers for Henry's reign contain many hundreds of references to the house