the places where such witnesses are to be found and there take the evidence. "They are to examine these witnesses and to transmit to Us their findings and the whole processes testified by their private seals."[1]
It would appear that this examination was still in progress when King Henry VII died in 1509. There is no evidence to show that the necessary documents were ever sent to Rome subsequently, although, according to the testimony of Polydore Vergil, King Henry VII left it as a charge to his son, Henry VIII, to carry out the canonization, which he had not succeeded in obtaining during his life. As far as can be ascertained this charge was neglected, and early in the reign of the eighth Henry it became evident that he was not likely to respect these wishes of his father, and later, of course, the sequence of events in the quarrel with the Holy See, and the various attacks of the Reformation principles on the cultus of the Saints put an end to the case altogether. At first, however, Henry VIII appears to have intended to carry out the wishes of his father, at least in regard to the
- ↑ Arch. Vat. Reg. Lat., 1204, fol. 228.
