CHARLES,the new Emperor of Germany (the old one being dead),wanted to prevent too cordial an alliance between these sovereigns,and came over to England before the King could repair to the place of meeting;and,besides making an agreeable impression upon him,secured Wolsey's interest by promising that his influence should make him Pope when the next vacancy occurred.On the day when the Emperor left England,the King and all the Court went over to Calais,and thence to the place of meeting,between Ardres and Guisnes,commonly called the Field of the Cloth of Gold.Here,all manner of expense and prodigality was lavished on the decorations of the show;many of the knights and gentlemen being so superbly dressed that it was said they carried their whole estates upon their shoulders.
There were sham castles,temporary chapels,fountains running wine,great cellars full of wine free as water to all comers,silk tents,gold lace and foil,gilt lions,and such things without end;and,in the midst of all,the rich Cardinal out-shone and out-glittered all the noblemen and gentlemen assembled.After a treaty made between the two Kings with as much solemnity as if they had intended to keep it,the lists-nine hundred feet long,and three hundred and twenty broad-were opened for the tournament;the Queens of France and England looking on with great array of lords and ladies.Then,for ten days,the two sovereigns fought five combats every day,and always beat their polite adversaries;though they DO write that the King of England,being thrown in a wrestle one day by the King of France,lost his kingly temper with his brother-in-arms,and wanted to make a quarrel of it.Then,there is a great story belonging to this Field of the Cloth of Gold,showing how the English were distrustful of the French,and the French of the English,until Francis rode alone one morning to Henry's tent;and,going in before he was out of bed,told him in joke that he was his prisoner;and how Henry jumped out of bed and embraced Francis;and how Francis helped Henry to dress,and warmed his linen for him;and how Henry gave Francis a splendid jewelled collar,and how Francis gave Henry,in return,a costly bracelet.
All this and a great deal more was so written about,and sung about,and talked about at that time (and,indeed,since that time too),that the world has had good cause to be sick of it,for ever.
Of course,nothing came of all these fine doings but a speedy renewal of the war between England and France,in which the two Royal companions and brothers in arms longed very earnestly to damage one another.But,before it broke out again,the Duke of Buckingham was shamefully executed on Tower Hill,on the evidence of a discharged servant-really for nothing,except the folly of having believed in a friar of the name of HOPKINS,who had pretended to be a prophet,and who had mumbled and jumbled out some nonsense about the Duke's son being destined to be very great in the land.It was believed that the unfortunate Duke had given offence to the great Cardinal by expressing his mind freely about the expense and absurdity of the whole business of the Field of the Cloth of Gold.At any rate,he was beheaded,as I have said,for nothing.And the people who saw it done were very angry,and cried out that it was the work of 'the butcher's son!'
The new war was a short one,though the Earl of Surrey invaded France again,and did some injury to that country.It ended in another treaty of peace between the two kingdoms,and in the discovery that the Emperor of Germany was not such a good friend to England in reality,as he pretended to be.Neither did he keep his promise to Wolsey to make him Pope,though the King urged him.Two Popes died in pretty quick succession;but the foreign priests were too much for the Cardinal,and kept him out of the post.So the Cardinal and King together found out that the Emperor of Germany was not a man to keep faith with;broke off a projected marriage between the King's daughter MARY,Princess of Wales,and that sovereign;and began to consider whether it might not be well to marry the young lady,either to Francis himself,or to his eldest son.
There now arose at Wittemberg,in Germany,the great leader of the mighty change in England which is called The Reformation,and which set the people free from their slavery to the priests.This was a learned Doctor,named MARTIN LUTHER,who knew all about them,for he had been a priest,and even a monk,himself.The preaching and writing of Wickliffe had set a number of men thinking on this subject;and Luther,finding one day to his great surprise,that there really was a book called the New Testament which the priests did not allow to be read,and which contained truths that they suppressed,began to be very vigorous against the whole body,from the Pope downward.It happened,while he was yet only beginning his vast work of awakening the nation,that an impudent fellow named TETZEL,a friar of very bad character,came into his neighbourhood selling what were called Indulgences,by wholesale,to raise money for beautifying the great Cathedral of St.Peter's,at Rome.Whoever bought an Indulgence of the Pope was supposed to buy himself off from the punishment of Heaven for his offences.
Luther told the people that these Indulgences were worthless bits of paper,before God,and that Tetzel and his masters were a crew of impostors in selling them.
The King and the Cardinal were mightily indignant at this presumption;and the King (with the help of SIR THOMAS MORE,a wise man,whom he afterwards repaid by striking off his head)even wrote a book about it,with which the Pope was so well pleased that he gave the King the title of Defender of the Faith.The King and the Cardinal also issued flaming warnings to the people not to read Luther's books,on pain of excommunication.But they did read them for all that;and the rumour of what was in them spread far and wide.