[72] This was not the first time in which this point of precedency had been contested. Edward III, in the sixth year of his reign, at a time when a similar debate was in agitation, having summoned a Parliament at York, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and all the other Prelates of his Province, declined giving their attendance, that the Metropolitan of all England might not be obliged to submit his Cross to that of York, in the Province of the latter. _Fox_, p. 387, 388. _W._
[73] Wolsey, in his endeavours to obtain the purple pall, had relied much on the assistance of Adrian, Bishop of Bath, himself a cardinal, then the Pope's collector in England, but residing at Rome, and acting by Polydore Vergil, his deputy. Adrian being either unable or unwilling to render the expected service, Wolsey, conceiving that he had been betrayed, seized upon the deputy collector, Polydore, and committed him to the Tower, where he remained, notwithstanding repeated remonstrances from the court of Rome, until the elevation of Wolsey to the cardinalate procured his liberty. This will account for the unfavourable light in which Wolsey is placed in Polydore Vergil's History.
[74] "Not farre unlike to this was the receaving of the Cardinals hatte. Which when a ruffian had brought unto him to Westminster under his cloke, he clothed the messenger in rich aray, and sent him backe to Dover againe, and appoynted the Bishop of Canterbury to meet him, and then another company of Lordes and Gentles I wotte not how oft, ere it came to Westminster, where it was set on a cupborde and tapers about, so that the greatest Duke in the lande must make curtesie thereto: yea and to his empty seat he being away." _Tindal's Works_, p. 374. _Fox's Acts_, p. 902. _W._
[75] Dr. Fiddes and Mr. Grove remark, that this is a prejudiced statement of the case, and that Cavendish was misled by false information. It does not indeed appear that Wolsey used any indirect means to supersede Archbishop Warham, and the following passages in the correspondence of Sir Thomas More with Ammonius seem to prove the contrary. Sir Thomas says: "The Archbishop of Canterbury hath at length resigned the office of Chancellor, which burthen, as you know, _he had strenuously endeavoured to lay down for some years_; and the long wished for retreat being now obtained, he enjoys a most pleasant recess in his studies, with the agreeable reflection of having acquitted himself honourably in that high station. The Cardinal of York, _by the Kings Orders_, succeeds him; who discharges the duty of the post so conspicuously as to surpass the hopes of all, notwithstanding the great opinion they had of his other eminent qualities: and what was most rare, to give so much content and satisfaction after so excellent a predecessor."