of the monasteries; he was foreign and home secretary, vicar-general and president of the star-chamber or privy-council.  The proud Nevilles, the powerful Percies, and the noble Courtenays all bowed before this plebeian son of a mechanic, who had arisen by force of genius and lucky accidents,—­too wise to build a palace like Hampton Court, but not ecclesiastical enough in his sympathies to found a college like Christ’s Church as Wolsey did.  He was a man simple in his tastes, and hard-working like Colbert,—­the great finance minister of France under Louis XIV., whom he resembled in his habits and policy.

His great task, as well as his great public service, was the visitation and suppression of monasteries.  He perceived that they had fulfilled their mission; that they were no longer needed; that they had become corrupt, and too corrupt to be reformed; that they were no longer abodes of piety, or beehives of industry, or nurseries of art, or retreats of learning; that their wealth was squandered; that they upheld the arm of a foreign power; that they shielded offenders against the laws; that they encouraged vagrancy and extortion; that, in short, they were dangerous to the realm.

The monks and friars opposed the new learning now extending from Italy to France, to Germany, and to England.  Colet came back from Italy, not to teach Platonic mysticism, but to unlock the Scriptures in the original,—­the centre of a group of scholars at Oxford, of whom Erasmus and Thomas More stood in the foremost rank.  Before the close of the fifteenth century, it is said that ten thousand editions of various books had been printed in different parts of Europe.  All the Latin authors, and some of the Greek, were accessible to students.  Tunstall and Latimer were sent to Padua to complete their studies.  Fox, bishop of Winchester, established a Greek professorship at Oxford.  It was an age of enthusiasm for reviving literature,—­which, however, received in Germany, through the influence chiefly of Luther, a different direction from what it received in Italy, and which extended from Germany to England.  But to this awakened spirit the monks presented obstacles and discouragements.  They had no sympathy with progress; they belonged to the Dark Ages; they were hostile to the circulation of the Scriptures; they were pedlers of indulgences and relics; impostors, frauds, vagabonds, gluttons, worldly, sensual, and avaricious.

So notoriously corrupt had monasteries become that repeated attempts had been made to reform them, but without success.  As early as 1489, Innocent VII. had issued a commission for a general investigation.  The monks were accused of dilapidating public property, of frequenting infamous places, of stealing jewels from consecrated shrines.  In 1511, Archbishop Warham instituted another visitation.  In 1523 Cardinal Wolsey himself undertook the task of reform.  At last the Parliament, in 1535, appointed Cromwell