Cardinal Wolsey

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CHAPTER I
THE STATE OF EUROPE
1494-1512


All men are to be judged by what they do, and the way in which they do
it. In the case of great statesmen there is a third consideration which
challenges our judgment--what they choose to do. This consideration only
presents itself in the case of great statesmen, and even then is not
always recognised. For the average statesman does from day to day the
business which has to be done, takes affairs as he finds them, and makes
the best of them. Many who deliberately selected the questions with
which they dealt have yet shrunk from the responsibility of their
choice, and have preferred to represent their actions as inevitable. Few
can claim the credit of choosing the sphere of their activity, of
framing a connected policy with clear and definite ends, and of applying
their ideas to every department of national organisation. In short,
statesmen are generally opportunists, or choose to represent themselves
as such; and this has been especially the case with English
statesmen--amongst whom Wolsey stands out as a notable exception. For
Wolsey claims recognition on grounds which apply to himself alone. His
name is not associated with any great achievement, he worked out no
great measure of reform, nor did he contribute any great political idea
which was fruitful in after days. He was, above all things, a practical
man, though he pursued a line of policy which few understood, and which
he did not stop to make intelligible. No very definite results came of
it immediately, and the results which came of it afterwards were not
such as Wolsey had designed. Yet, if we consider his actual
achievements, we are bound to admit that he was probably the greatest
political genius whom England has ever produced; for at a great crisis
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