wn ecclesiastical practice. He personified in himself
most of the clerical abuses of his age. Not merely an "unpreaching
prelate," he rarely said mass; his _commendams_ and absenteeism were
alike violations of canon law. Three of the bishoprics he held he
never visited at all; York, which he had obtained fifteen years
before, he did not visit till the year of his death, and then through
no wish of his own. He was equally negligent of the vow of chastity;
he cohabited with the daughter of "one Lark," a relative of the Lark
who is mentioned in the correspondence of the time as "omnipotent"
with the Cardinal, and as resident in his household.[321] By her (p. 118)
he left two children, a son,[322] for whom he obtained a deanery, four
archdeaconries, five prebends, and a chancellorship, and sought the
Bishopric of Durham, and a daughter who became a nun. The accusation
brought against him by the Duke of Buckingham and others, of procuring
objects for Henry's sensual appetite, is a scandal, to which no
credence would have been attached but for Wolsey's own moral laxity,
and the fact that the governor of Charles V. performed a similar
office.[323]

[Footnote 319: _L. and P._, iv., 4824.]

[Footnote 320: There is no doubt about his
eagerness for the power which would have enabled
him to carry out a reformation. As legate he
demanded from the Pope authority to visit and
reform the secular clergy as well as the
monasteries; this was refused on the ground that it
would have superseded the proper functions of the
episcopate (_L. and P._, ii., 4399; iii., 149).]

[Footnote 321: _L. and P._, ii., 629, 2637, 4068.
Lark became prebendary of St. Stephen's (_Ibid._,
iv., _Introd._, p. xlvi.).]

[Footnote 322: Called Thomas Wynter, see the
present writer's _Life of Cranmer_, p. 324 _n._
Some writers have affected to doubt Wolsey's
parentage of Wynter, but this son is often referred
to in the correspondence of the time, _e.g._, _L. and
P._, iv., p. 1407, Nos. 4824, 5581, 6026, 6075.
Art. 27.]

[Footnote 323: _Ibid._, iii., 1284; iv., p. 2558;