he dead, whom the pagans themselves respected; was at open hostility
with Heaven; and had engaged in professed enmity with the whole host
of saints and angels. Above all, he was often reproached with his
resemblance to the emperor Julian, whom, it was said, he imitated in
his apostasy and learning, though he fell short of him in morals. Henry
could distinguish in some of these libels the style and animosity of
his kinsman Pole; and he was thence incited to vent his rage, by every
possible expedient, on that famous cardinal.

Reginald de la Pole, or Reginald Pole, was descended from the royal
family, being fourth son of the countess of Salisbury, daughter of the
duke of Clarence. He gave in early youth indications of that fine genius
and generous disposition by which, during his whole life, he was so
much distinguished and Henry, having conceived great friendship for him,
intended to raise him to the highest ecclesiastical dignities; and, as
a pledge of future favors, he conferred on him the deanery of Exeter,[*]
the better to support him in his education. Pole was carrying on his
studies in the university of Paris at the time when the king solicited
the suffrages of that learned body in favor of his divorce; but though
applied to by the English agent, he declined taking any part in the
affair. Henry bore this neglect with more temper than was natural
to him; and he appeared unwilling, on that account, to renounce all
friendship with a person whose virtues and talents, he hoped, would
prove useful as well as ornamental to his court and kingdom. He allowed
him still to possess his deanery, and gave him permission to finish his
studies at Padua: he even paid him some court, in order to bring him
into his measures; and wrote to him, while in that university, desiring
him to give his opinion freely with regard to the late measures taken in
England for abolishing the papal authority. Pole had now contracted an
intimate friendship with all persons eminent for dignity or merit in
Italy--Sadolet, Bembo, and other revivers of true taste and learning;
and he was moved by these connections, as well as by religious zeal, to
forget, in some respect, the duty which he owed to Henry, his benefactor
and his sovereign. He replied by writing a treatise of the Unity of the
Church, in which he inveighed against the king's supremacy, his divorce,
his second marriage; and he even exhorted the emperor to revenge on him
the injury done to the im