"For his honest behaviour in his master's cause he was esteemed the most faithfullest servant, and was of all men greatly commended." Cromwell however had done more than save himself from ruin.
The negotiations for Wolsey's pensions had given him access to the king, and "by his witty demeanour he grew continually in the King's favour." But the favour had been won by more than "witty demeanour." In a private interview with Henry Cromwell boldly advised him to cut the knot of the divorce by the simple exercise of his own supremacy.

The advice struck the key-note of the later policy by which the daring counsellor was to change the whole face of Church and State; but Henry still clung to the hopes held out by the new ministers who had followed Wolsey, and shrank perhaps as yet from the bare absolutism to which Cromwell called him.

The advice at any rate was concealed; and, though high in the king's favour, his new servant waited patiently the progress of events.
[Sidenote: The Howards] The first result of Wolsey's fall was a marked change in the system of administration.

Both the Tudor kings had carried on their government mainly through the agency of great ecclesiastics.

Archbishop Morton and Bishop Fox had been successively ministers of Henry the Seventh.