lsey
derived from two Spanish bishoprics. These were not bribes in the
sense that they affected Wolsey's policy; they were well enough known
to the King; to spoil the Egyptians was considered fair game, and
Henry was generous enough not to keep all the perquisites of peace or
war for himself.

[Footnote 312: Giustinian, _Desp._, App. ii., 309.]

[Footnote 313: _Ven. Cal._, ii., 1045.]

[Footnote 314: _L. and P._, i., 5457.]

[Footnote 315: _Ibid._, ii., 4354.]

[Footnote 316: _L. and P._, ii., 1053, 1066.]

[Footnote 317: _Ibid._, ii., 1931; _cf._
Shakespeare, _Henry VIII._, Act. I., Sc. i.:--

Thus the Cardinal
Does buy and sell his honour as he pleases
And for his own advantage.]

[Footnote 318: _L. and P._, iii., 709, 2307 (where
it is given as nine thousand "crowns of the sun");
_Sp. Cal._, ii., 273, 600. In 1527 Charles
instructed his ambassador to offer Wolsey in
addition to his pension of nine thousand ducats
with arrears a further pension of six thousand
ducats and a marquisate in Milan worth another
twelve or fifteen thousand ducats a year (_L. and
P._, iv., 3464).]

Two years after the agreement with Charles, Ruthal, Bishop of Durham,
died, and Wolsey exchanged Bath and Wells for the richer see formerly
held by his political ally and friend. But Winchester was richer (p. 117)
even than Durham; so when Fox followed Ruthal to the grave, in 1528,
Wolsey exchanged the northern for the southern see, and begged that
Durham might go to his natural son, a youth of eighteen.[319] All
these were held _in commendam_ with the Archbishopric of York, but
they did not satisfy Wolsey; and, in 1521, he obtained the grant of
St. Albans, the greatest abbey in England. His palaces outshone in
splendour those of Henry himself, and few monarchs have been able to
display such wealth of plate as loaded the Cardinal's table. Wolsey is
supposed to have conceived vast schemes of ecclesiastical reform,
which time and opportunity failed him to effect.[320] If he had ever
seriously set about the work, the first thing to be reformed would
have been his o