Pole, Reginald

(1500–58)

   Cardinal and Archbishop.

   Pole was the great-nephew of King Edward IV of England. He was educated at the University of Oxford and for several years he corresponded with Thomas more and erasmus. He refused King Henry VIII’s invitation to be either Archbishop of York or Bishop of Winchester and in 1534 he openly condemned Henry’s conduct in the matter of his divorce. He was created a Cardinal in 1536 and in 1540, as a result of his treason in encouraging France and Spain to break with England, an Act of Attainder was passed against him. None the less he rose in the hierarchy of the Church and he was nearly elected Pope in 1549. Then, in 1552, the Roman Catholic Mary I inherited the English throne from her half-brother the Protestant Edward VI. Pole was sent as papal legate to England; he absolved Parliament from schism with Rome and, after the martyrdom of cranmer, he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. He did not succeed in bringing back the English people to the Catholic fold and, indeed, the torture and burning of Protestants made the Church an object of hatred. None the less he was a dedicated and pious man and he died only twelve hours after the Queen.

   W. Schenk, Reginald Pole: Cardinal of England (1950).