: _L. and P._, i., 3876, 4283.]

[Footnote 277: _Arch. R. Soc. Rom._, xix., 3, 4.]

[Footnote 278: _L. and P._, i., 5543.]

[Footnote 279: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 53-54, 361; _L.
and P._, i., 976, 4621.]

[Footnote 280: _Ibid._, ii., 887, 967.]

[Footnote 281: _Ibid._, ii., 1456, 1928; iii.,
1369.]

CHAPTER V. (p. 108)

KING AND CARDINAL.

"Nothing," wrote Giustinian of Wolsey in 1519, "pleases him more than
to be called the arbiter of Christendom."[282] Continental statesmen
were inclined to ridicule and resent the Cardinal's claim. But the
title hardly exaggerates the part which the English minister was
enabled to play during the next few years by the rivalry of Charles
and Francis, and by the apparently even balance of their powers. The
position which England held in the councils of Europe in 1519 was a
marvellous advance upon that which it had occupied in 1509. The first
ten years of Henry's reign had been a period of fluctuating, but
continual, progress. The campaign of 1513 had vindicated England's
military prowess, and had made it possible for Wolsey, at the peace of
the following year, to place his country on a level with France and
Spain and the Empire. Francis's conquest of Milan, and the haste with
which Maximilian, Leo and Charles sought to make terms with the
victor, caused a temporary isolation of England and a consequent
decline in her influence. But the arrangements made between Charles
and Francis contained, in themselves, as acute English diplomatists
saw, the seeds of future disruption; and, in 1518, Wolsey was able (p. 109)
so to play off these mutual jealousies as to reassert England's
position. He imposed a general peace, or rather a truce, which raised
England even higher than the treaties of 1514 had done, and made her
appear as the conservator of the peace of Europe. England had almost
usurped the place of the Pope as mediator between rival Christian
princes.[283]

[Footnote 282: _L. and P._, iii., 125; Giustinian,
_Desp._, ii., 256.]

[Footnote 283: _L. and P._, iii., 125. Men were
shocked when the Pope was styled "comes" instead of
"princeps confederationis" of 1518. "The chief
auth