The checks which had been imposed on the action of the sovereign by the presence of great prelates and lords at his council were practically removed.

His fellow-councillors learned to hold their peace when the haughty minister "clapped his rod on the board." The restraints of public justice were equally done away.

Even the distant check of Rome was gone.

All secular, all ecclesiastical power was summed up in a single hand.

It was this concentration of authority in Wolsey which accustomed England to a system of personal government under Henry and his successors.