Page:The religious life of King Henry VI.djvu/113

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HOLY KING HENRY VI
87

the work of the Commission to enquire into the sanctity of the holy King Henry VI was delayed. Cardinal Morton died in 1 500, and his fellow Commissioner, the Bishop of Durham, followed him to the grave in 1501. The Cardinal had arrived at a great age, and during many years was mostly so occupied in the affairs of State that he could have found little time to attend to the business of the Papal Commission. In Rome Pope Alexander VI died in 1503, and after the brief reign of Pius III, he was succeeded by Pope Julius II. It was consequently necessary to have recourse once more to Rome, and so, the year after Pope Julius's succession, Henry VII once again sent another petition for the canonization of his saintly predecessor, which was couched in almost identical terms as those of the former demand of 1494. This new petition was forthwith granted by Pope Julius II, and the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Warham, was associated with the Bishops of Winchester, Durham, and London in the Commission of enquiry appointed in 1504.[1]

At the same time Henry VII again applied

  1. Arch. Vat. Reg. Lat., 984, fol. 49.