Excerpt from Life of Reginald Pole The Life of Reginald Cardinal Pole would have been written by the Rev. Ethelred Taunton, had not an untimely death struck him down at the beginning of his task - leaving the world poorer for those who had the happiness of his friendship. After waiting to see if some worthier pen would take up the interrupted work, I ventured upon it, encouraged by the kindness of Father Taunton's literary executor, who was good enough to entrust his notes and data to me. These, collected with exhaustive research and care from the archives and printed books in England, were of invaluable assistance, and a sure guide to further research in Rome and other places in Italy. This is the extent of my obligation, which I gratefully acknowledge: for the book itself I am entirely responsible, and from a few of the notes, and especially from some of the statements in Taunton's brilliant study. The Life of Wolsey, his views on one or two important points appeared to be unsupported by the facts, and against the weight of the evidence: conclusions which his own further researches would doubtless have led him to modify. The first Life of Pole, written in Italian by his friend and Secretary, Ludovico Beccatelli, Archbishop of Ragusa, was published at Venice in 1563, and a Latin translation with a few minor additions by Andreas Dudith, who had accompanied the Cardinal to England, appeared shortly afterwards. An interesting English version was published in England in 1686 during the short reign of James II, entitled Some Observations upon the Life of Reginaldus Polus, Cardinal of the Royal Bloud of England. Sent in a Pacquet out of Wales by G. L. [G. Lyde], Gentleman and Servant to the late Majesty of Henrietta Maria of Bourbon, mother to the present King. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Reginald Pole (1500-1558), cardinal and archbishop of Canterbury, was at the centre of reform controversies in the mid 16th century - antagonist of Henry VIII, a leader of the reform group in the Roman Church, and nearly elected pope (Julius III was elected in his stead). His voluminous correspondence - more than 2500 items, including letters to him - forms a major source for historians not only of England, but of Catholic Europe and the early Reformation as a whole. In addition to the insight they provide on political history, both secular and ecclesiastical, and on the spiritual motives of reform, they also constitute a great resource for our understanding of humanist learning and cultural patronage in the Renaissance. Hitherto there has been no comprehensive, let alone modern or accurate listing and analysis of this correspondence, in large part due to the complexity of the manuscript traditions and the difficulties of legibility. The present work makes this vast body of material accessible to the researcher, summarising each letter (and printing key texts usually in critical editions), together with necessary identification and comment. The first three volumes in this set will contain the correspondence; the fourth and fifth will provide a biographical companion to all persons mentioned, and will together constitute a major research tool in their own right. This first volume covers the crucial turning point in Pole’s career: his protracted break with Henry and the substitution of papal service for royal. One major dimension of this rupture was a profound religious conversion which took Pole to the brink of one of the defining moments of the Italian Reformation, the writing of the ’Beneficio di Christo’.

"Many fictional works have real, historical authors as characters. Great national literary icons like Virgil and Shakespeare have been fictionalized in novels, plays, poems, movies, and operas. This fashion might seem typically postmodern, the reverse side of the contention that the Author is Dead; but this collection of essays shows that the representation of historical authors as characters can boast of a considerable history, and may well constitute a genre in its own right. This volume brings together a collection of articles on appropriations of historical authors, written by experts in a wide range of major Western literatures."--BOOK JACKET.

A life of Reginald Pole (1500-1558), among the most important of sixteenth-century international notables.