in the unpopular capacity of collectors of the papal dues. One of them, Giovanni dei Gigli, did his best to throw some romance over Henry's prosaic marriage by a fervent epithalamium, which gave England some excellent political advice. For this and other services he was made Bishop of Worcester, in which office he was succeeded by his nephew, and afterwards by another Italian, Gerolamo Ghinucci. The practical sense of English kings combined patronage of Humanism with requirements of diplomatic service, and paid for both out of the revenues of the Church. Yet these men were useful in their way as means of literary communication with Italy. Ghinucci engineered at Rome Wolsey's plan for founding Cardinal College out of monastic revenues, and was employed to seek for books and order transcripts of Greek MSS. He even sent Wolsey catalogues of the Libraries of the Vatican and of Venice, that he might select such books as should be most useful for the library of his college. Another Italian, Polidore Vergil of Urbino, was not so fortunate in winning Wolsey's favour; but he avenged himself by writing a history of England in which Wolsey was steadily depreciated. Its graceful Latinity made it for a long time the current history of England on the Continent, while England refused to believe that a foreigner could really understand its affairs. In yet another quarter Italian influences directly operated on England. It was long before natives could write Latin letters with freedom; and Henry VIII.'s Latin secretary, Andrea Ammonio of Lucca, was a close friend and a kindly instructor of the eminent English scholars of his time.
