aid of thieves and
murderers.]

[Footnote 1001: Much of the correspondence of this
Council found its way to Hamilton Palace in
Scotland, and thence to Germany; it was purchased
for the British Museum in 1889 and now comprises
_Addit. MSS._, 32091, 32647-48, 32654 and 32657
(printed as _Hamilton Papers_, 2 vols., 1890-92).]

With one aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace he had yet to deal. The
opportunity had been too good for Paul III. to neglect; and early in
1537 he had sent a legate _a latere_ to Flanders to do what he could
to abet the rebellion.[1002] His choice fell on Reginald Pole, the son
of the Countess of Salisbury and grandson of George, Duke of Clarence.
Pole had been one of Henry's great favourites; the King had paid for
his education, given him, while yet a layman, rich church preferments,
and contributed the equivalent of about twelve hundred pounds a year
to enable him to complete his studies in Italy.[1003] In 1530 Pole was
employed to obtain opinions at Paris favourable to Henry's divorce,[1004]
and was offered the Archbishopric of York. He refused from
conscientious scruples,[1005] sought in vain to turn the King from his
evil ways, and, in 1532, left England; they parted friends, and Henry
continued Pole's pensions. While Pole was regarding with increasing
disgust the King's actions, Henry still hoped that Pole was on his (p. 359)
side, and, in 1536, in answer to Henry's request for his views, Pole
sent his famous treatise _De Unitate Ecclesiae_. His heart was better
than his head; he thought Henry had been treated too gently, and that
the fulmination of a bull of excommunication earlier in his course
would have stopped his headlong career. To repair the Pope's omissions,
Pole now proceeded to administer the necessary castigation; "flattery,"
he said, "had been the cause of all the evil". Even his friend,
Cardinal Contarini, thought the book too bitter, and among his family
in England it produced consternation.[1006] Some of them were hand in
glove with Chapuys, who had suggested Pole to Charles as a candidate
for the throne; and his book might well have broken the thin ice on
which they stood. Henry, however, suppressed his anger and invited
Pole to England; he, perhaps wisely, refused, but immediately
afterwards he accepted the Pope's call to Rome, where he was made