Page:The Life of Sir Thomas More (William Roper, ed by Samuel Singer).djvu/43

 stance. Sir Thomas seems to have thought that a pope was not of the essence of the visible church, which might subsist without a pope under the government of provincial patriarchs, or archbishops.

I beg leave to add one particular more concerning Sir Thomas, as a proof of his great integrity. His friend Erasmus observes that he stood but on ill terms with the Cardinal the King's prime Minister of State. The Cardinal, says he, when he was alive, was far from being favourable to More, and rather feared than loved him. Somewhat of this is intimated in the following life. It seems Sir Thomas had courage enough to oppose him both in the Parliament and at the Council Board. To this latter Sir Thomas himself seems to refer in the story he tells us of the Cardinal's project of our taking the Emperor's part in the war he was engaged in against France, being there opposed by some of the council. 'Some (says he) thought it wisdome that we should sit still and let them alone: but evermore against that way my Lord used the fable of those wise men that because they would not be washed with the rayne that shold make all the people fools went themself in caves and hid them under the ground: but when the rayne had once made all the remenaunt fooles, and that they came out of their caves and wold utter their wisdome, the fooles agreed together against them and there all to beat them. And so, said his Grace, that if we wold be so wise that we wold sit in peace while the fools fought, they would not fail after to make peace and agree, and fall at length all upon us. This fable, adds Sir Thomas,