POLE, REGINALD (1500-58). The last Roman Archbishop of Canterbury. Ile was born tit Stourt(i Castle, Staffordshire, in March. 1500, the sun of Sir Richard Pole, by Margaret, Coun tess of Salisbury, daughter of the Duke of Clar ence, the brother of Edward IV. His early educa tion was received from the Carthusian:4 at Sheen. whence, being liberally provided for by Henry VI11.. lie passed to Magdalen College, Oxford, and. although still a layma n. received several valuable preferments through the favor of the King. I'm. the further prosecution of his studies he went, in 15:21. to the University of Paris, and thence to Padua, where he formed the friendship of a distinguished group of scholars and friends, all of whom subsequently took a leading part in public a fin irs—Contarini, Bembo, Sadoleto, and others. In 1527 lie returned to England, where the highest ecclesiastical dignities awaited his acceptance. In 1529.30 he was in Paris, where he collected opinions favorable to Henry VIII.'s divorce from Catharine of Aragon, hut on his re turn lie courageously endeavored to dissuade the King. Ti. 1533 Pole was again on the Con tinent, whence he issued his Pro Reclesias New Unita Ns Defensione taking strong grounds against the divorce. At the end of 1536 he went to 1:0!»1', where he was ordained deacon and made a cardinal. In February, 1537, he was appointed Papal legate to England. Ind his commission was not then discharged. Ills posi tion had greatly enraged Henry, whose resent ment fell upon Pole's elder brother, and upon his aged mother. the Countess of Salisbury. During the rest of Henry's reign Pole remained in exile. The Papacy, for the maintenance of whose author ity in the cause of the injured Catharine Pole was regarded as a martyr, treated hint with dis tinguished favor. lie was employed in many af fairs of the highest importance, being sent as legate, in 1537, to France and the Low Countries, from both which States Henry VIII. in vain (le minded his extradition. lie also took an active
part in the discussion on the Interim, and when the Council of Trent was opened. he was ap pointed tine of the three legate-presidents who acted in the nose of the Pope, Paul III. On this pontiff's death in 1549, Pole was all but elected to succeed. For some time after this he resided chiefly in a monastery. near Verona, in comparative retirement, until the accession of Afars called him back to active life, as the main instrument of the reconciliation of England with the Papacy. On November 24, 1554. Pole sol emnly entered London as legate. possessing in equal degree the confidence of the Queen. lm the arduous charge thus intrusted to him he ac quitted himself with nitwit prudence, and, con sidering the circumstances of the time, with sin gular moderation. In the severities which marked the later history of Mary's reign it is all but certain that Pole had no share. He was ordained priest :11areh 20, 1557, and consecrated Arch bishop of Canterbury two days after. and later made ehancellor of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. On the difficult and critical question of the disposal of the Church property confiscated by henry VIII.. Pole, who saw the necessity of moderation, was for a time at issue with the Pope: but his representations were sueeessful in producing a more moderate policy and the work of reunion appeared to proceed with every pros pect of a complete and permanent issue, when it was interrupted by the death of the Queen, No vember 17, 1558. Pole died within twelve hours afterwards. Besides the treatise De Unitate, al ready mentioned, he is also the author of a book be Concilio, and of other treatises on the author ity of the Roman pontiff and the reformation of England, and of many important. letters, full of interest for the history of the time. Consult his Life by A. Zimmermann (Regensburg, 1S93) ; also a study of the first and last parts of his life by F. G. Lee (London, 1887).