POLE, REGINALD (150o-1558), English cardinal and archbishop of Canterbury, born at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, was the third son of Sir Richard Pole and Margaret, countess of Salisbury, niece of Edward IV. Intended for the Church, he was sent for five years to the grammar school founded by Colet at Sheen. Here he had Linacre and William Latimer as teachers. In his thirteenth year he went to Magdalen College, Oxford, and two years after took his degree in arts. In 1517 Henry VIII. appointed his young kinsman to a prebend in Salisbury, and soon afterwards to the deaneries of Wimborne and Exeter. He was a friend of Sir Thomas More, who says that Pole was as learned as he was noble and as virtuous as he was learned. In 1519, at the king's expense, he went to Padua, the Athens of Europe, according to Erasmus; and there, where Colet and Cuthbert Tunstall had also been educated, he came into contact with the choicest minds of the later Italian Renaissance, so forming his friendships.
In 1525 he went to Rome for the Jubilee, and two years after returned to England and was initiated by Thomas Cromwell into the mysteries of statesmanship, that master telling him that the main point consisted in discovering and following the will of princes, who are not bound by the ordinary code of honour. When the divorce question arose, Pole seems at first to have been in its favour. He probably took the same view that Wolsey had, viz., that the dispensation of Julius II. was insufficient, as of two existing impediments only one had been dispensed. When, how ever, the king raised the theological argument which ended in disaster, Pole could not accept it; and, after the failure of Cam peggio's mission, when the king asked him for his opinion, he excused himself on the score of inexperience, but went by Henry's order to Paris (153o) to obtain the judgment of the Sorbonne, insisting on the presence of a colleague to do the necessary business. On his return to England he spoke strongly the project to the king, who sought to propitiate him by the offer of the sees of York or Winchester, which were kept vacant for ten months for his acceptance. There was a stormy interview at York Place; but eventually Henry told him to put into writing his reasons against the divorce. This was done, and, recognizing the difficulties of the situation, the king gave him leave to travel abroad, and allowed him still to retain his revenues as dean of Exeter. In 1535, which saw by the deaths of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More a change in Henry's policy, Pole received orders to send a formal opinion on the royal supremacy, and the king prom ised to find him suitable employment in England, even if the opinion were an adverse one. The parting of the ways had been
reached. Pole's reply, which took a year to write, and was after wards published with additions under the title Pro ecclesiasticae unitatis defensione, was sent to England (May 25, 1536), meant for the king's eye alone. It contained a severe attack upon the royal policy, and a warning of temporal punishment at the hands of the emperor and the king of France if Henry did not repent of his cruelties and return to the Church. Pole was again summoned to return to England to explain himself, but declined until he could do so with honour and safety; but he was on the point of going at all risks, when he heard from his mother and brother that the whole family would suffer if he remained obstinate.
Paul III., who had prepared a bull of excommunication and deposition against Henry, summoned Pole to Rome in October, and two months after created him cardinal. In January 1537 he received a sharp letter of rebuke from the king's council, together with the suggestion that the differences might be discussed with royal deputies either in France or Flanders, provided that Pole would attend without being commissioned by any one. He replied that he was willing and had the pope's leave to meet any deputies anywhere. Paul III. in the early spring of that year named him legate a ktere to Charles V. and Francis I., to secure their assist ance in enforcing the bull by helping a projected rising in England against Henry's tyranny. The mission failed, owing to the mutual jealousy of the sovereigns. Francis feared to allow his presence in France, and Pole passed over to Flanders, and awaited in vain royal deputies. In August 1537 the cardinal returned to Rome. There he was appointed to the commission established by Paul III. for considering the reforms necessary for the church and Roman curia. The report Consilium delectorium cardinalium is, in its plain-spoken directness, one of the most noteworthy docu ments of the history of the period. Towards the end of 1539, after Henry had destroyed the shrine of St. Thomas Becket, another attempt was made to launch the bull of deposition, and Pole again was sent to urge Charles V. to assist. Once more his efforts were in vain, and he retired to his friend Sadoleto at Carpentras. As Pole had escaped Henry's power the royal ven geance fell on his mother, who was executed on May 27, 1541.