The reason for Campeggio's mission in 1518 (not 1517, as Foxe states) was to persuade Henry VIII to support Pope Leo X's project for a crusade. Legates a latere were only exceptionally admitted to England (or to several other states), but this intention gave Cardinal Wolsey the opportunity to seek the same status for himself. Henry VIII therefore wrote on 11 April 1518, agreeing to the request on the condition that Wolsey was accorded the same rank. The Bull conferring this on the English cardinal was issued on 17 May, over a month before Campeggio reached Calais, so the sequence of events proposed by Foxe is in error. The real reason for the delay in the latter's proceeding to England was that Wolsey had another request. Cardinal Adriano Castelli, who held the English see of Bath and Wells, had been marginally involved in a plot against Leo, and Wolsey was anxious to secure his deprivation in order to possess the see himself. His campaign against Castelli was aided by another cardinal, Sylvestro Gigli, and it appears to have been Gigli's idea to keep Campeggio waiting until their demand was met. Campeggio reached Calais about 21 June and Wolsey sent an escort to bring him into England on around 10 July (Peter Gwyn, The King's Cardinal: the Rise and Fall of Thomas Wolsey [1990], pp. 102-3). An authentic account of Wolsey's pomp is contained in George Cavendish, The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, ed. Richard S. Sylvester, Early English Text Society No. 243. (London: Oxford University Press, 1959). Cavendish wrote between 1556 and 1558, but his work remained in manuscript, and there is no reason to believe that Foxe ever saw it. This account is taken from Edward Hall, The Union of the two noble and illustre families of Lancastre and Yorke (London, 1550), 'The triumphant reign of K. Henrie the eight', p. 64r-v [STC (2nd ed.) 12723a]. An additional source may be found in BL Harley MS 433 fo. 293, calendared in the Letters and Papers…of the Reign of Henry VIII. ed. J. Gairdner et al. (London, 1862-1910), 2, No. 4333. This manuscript originally belonged to John Foxe.

The main source for Foxe's story of Campeggio's second visit in 1529 is Edward Hall's chronicle, referred to above, pp. 161-3, 170r-171v, and 184v. This is in the regnal year 21 Henry VIII, not, as stated, 19 Henry VIII. The pope in question was Clement VII, not Clement VIII. This appears to have been simply a mistake (if he had been counting the anti-popes, he should have been Clement IX, since 'Clement VII' reigned at Avignon from 1378 to 1394, and 'Clement VIII' from 1423 to 1429). The occasion for this second visit was, of course, the resolution of the 'King's Great Matter' - the annulment of his marriage to Catherine. The story of the sack of Rome, which helped to frustrate the king's efforts, is also taken from Hall's Chronicle (pp. 159-61). The story of Wolsey's malice against Richard Pace, dean of St Paul's (and dean of Exeter and dean of Salisbury), however, does not come from Hall, and although the fact of his collapse can be confirmed from letters calendared in the Letters and Papers, there is no likelihood that Foxe would have known about these. It no doubt derived from the letter of Erasmus to Thomas Lupsett of 4 October 1525, in which he hoped that 'our friend Pace has recovered by now' from 'the love disease' [syphilis] which afflicted him (Erasmus, Collected Works ed. Alexander Dalzell [1994], No. 1624 [p. 305]). This had already been published in the Opus epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami (Basel: Froben, 1529). There is no reason to suppose that the cardinal was deliberately responsible for Pace's insanity, which caused him to be recalled from Rome in November 1525, although it is possible that the pressures put upon him may have been a contributory factor. Pace was relieved of his duties as king's secretary in 1526, and consigned to the care of the Brigittine monks at Syon. Pace was in and out of care for the rest of his life, pursuing his scholarly interests as best he could. For a while, he lived normally in London, but later he returned (apparently voluntarily) to Syon. On the whole, Wolsey's treatment of him was patient and considerate, and Foxe was taking at face value hostile stories that had become part of the cardinal's 'Black Legend'. The former diplomat never, however, completely recovered, and died eight years later. On Pace, see Jervis Wegg, Richard Pace, A Tudor Diplomat (London, 1932), pp. 273-288. The original of the 'ambitious letter', written by Wolsey to Gardiner, is to be found in BL Cotton MS B.XI, fo. 57, although how Foxe obtained a copy of it is not known. The source of the 'Instructions' is similarly unknown, but the stories about Barnes and the Legatine Congregation are to be found in Hall's Chronicle, pp. 146-7, 166, and 169. Wolsey's arrest, the summoning of Parliament, and More's appointment as chancellor, are similarly taken from Hall, as are the 'Greuvances against the Clergie' (p. 188) and the articles against Wolsey (p. 189). The petition of Humphrey Monmouth to Wolsey and the Council, dated 19 May 1528, from which most of the story his 'trouble' is taken, came from a manuscript in Foxe's possession (BL Harley MS 421). It was printed by Strype (Ecclesiastical Memorials, 1, ii, p. 89) and taken from Strype by the Letters and Papers (4, ii, No 4282). The proceedings against Arthur, Bilney, and others are taken from the registers of John Tunstal, bishop of Durham (not Stokesley), bishop of London (London Guildhall Library, Guildhall MS 9531/10 (fos.131r-36r)), whilst the story of Thomas Hytten probably comes from John Fisher's Rochester register, now missing. The substance of these blocks was repeated with very little alteration in 1583.

David Loades