. Historical portraits ... idently employed him if he had dirtywork to do; e. g. he was his agent in 1524 in the suppression ofsome small monasteries, whose revenues were to go to the Cardinalsfoundations at Oxford and Ipswich; and he is said to have executedthis task with much vulgar cruelty. Finally he became Wolseyschief financial adviser, and, in 1530, managed to give the world theimpression that both in Parliament and outside it he was defendingfallen greatness, while he was in reality taking care not to be in-volved in his patrons fall. Like the unjust steward, he advisedthe Cardinal to
. Historical portraits ... idently employed him if he had dirtywork to do; e. g. he was his agent in 1524 in the suppression ofsome small monasteries, whose revenues were to go to the Cardinalsfoundations at Oxford and Ipswich; and he is said to have executedthis task with much vulgar cruelty. Finally he became Wolseyschief financial adviser, and, in 1530, managed to give the world theimpression that both in Parliament and outside it he was defendingfallen greatness, while he was in reality taking care not to be in-volved in his patrons fall. Like the unjust steward, he advisedthe Cardinal to satisfy his enemies by large bribes, of the convey-ance of which he was to be the agent. We have no authority forsaying that Wolsey in any way * bequeathed Cromwell as a trustyservant to the King, nor do we even know how or when the Kingfirst became acquainted with his future minister: but, by the be-ginning of 1531, Cromwell had become a privy councillor, and ayear later Master of the Jewel House and Clerk of the THOMAS CROMWELL, EARL OF ESSEXFrom the portrait in the National Portrait Gallery Face /. 44 THOxMAS CROMWELL 45 By the spring of 1533 his position was assured: he becameChancellor of the Exchequer, then Kings Secretary, then Vice-gerent in all causes ecclesiastical. This made him practically aRoyal Commissioner for enforcing the statutes passed in the thensitting Parliament, and the brutality with which he enforced themis notorious. Henry, who was at this period of his life intoxicatedwith triumph and pride, needed an instrument such as Cromwellwho would be entirely devoid of scruples: at the same time thereis much evidence that Cromwell even exceeded his masters savageinstructions. The manner in which Fisher, More and the Car-thusian monks were brought to their deaths, the manner in which,in the subsequent visitation of the monasteries, a case was artificiallygot up against the monks, form the blackest blots on the name ofHenry and of his minister. As Lord
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