but the cardinal required that
he and all the aldermen should separately confer with himself about
the benevolence; and he eluded by that means the danger of a formed
opposition. Matters, however, went not so smoothly in the country. An
insurrection was begun in some places; but as the people were not headed
by any considerable person, it was easy for the duke of Suffolk, and
the earl of Surrey, now duke of Norfolk, by employing persuasion
and authority, to induce the ringleaders to lay down their arms and
surrender themselves prisoners. The king, finding it dangerous to punish
criminals engaged in so popular a cause, was determined, notwithstanding
his violent, imperious temper, to grant them a general pardon; and
he prudently imputed their guilt, not to their want of loyalty or
affection, but to their poverty. The offenders were carried before the
star chamber; where, after a severe charge brought against them by the
king's council, the cardinal said, "that notwithstanding their grievous,
offence, the king, in, consideration of their necessities, had granted
them his gracious pardon, upon condition that they would find sureties
for their future good behavior." But they, replying that they had no
sureties, the cardinal first, and after him the duke of Norfolk, said
that they would be bound for them. Upon which they were dismissed.[*]

* Herbert. Hall. Stowe, p. 525. Holingshed, p. 891.

These arbitrary impositions being imputed, though on what grounds is
unknown, to the counsels of the cardinal, increased the general odium
under which he labored: and the clemency of the pardon, being ascribed
to the king, was considered as an atonement on his part for the
illegality of the measure. But Wolsey, supported both by royal and
papal authority, proceeded without scruple to violate all ecclesiastical
privileges, which, during that age, were much more sacred than civil;
and having once prevailed in that unusual attempt of suppressing some
monasteries, he kept all the rest in awe, and exercised over them an
arbitrary jurisdiction. By his commission as legate he was empowered to
visit them, and reform them, and chastise their irregularities; and he
employed his usual agent, Allen, in the exercise of this authority.
The religious houses were obliged to compound for their guilt, real or
pretended, by paying large sums to the cardinal or his deputy; and this
oppression was carried so far, that it reached at last the king's ear