Saintly Relics of Volsi

Wolsey’s reliquary is a treasured devotional object that the cardinal gives to Harry Norris as he leaves Putney under the shadow of royal seizure. Identified by George Cavendish as a piece of the True Cross, it becomes at once a sacred possession, a personal gift, and an attempted bridge between a fallen minister and Henry VIII. Its passage into Norris’s keeping makes visible the contrast between Wolsey’s trust in the king’s message and Cromwell’s suspicion of its political value.

The gift at Putney

As Wolsey prepares to leave, Norris arrives with a message from Henry: he is to comfort the cardinal and give him a ring. Wolsey takes the ring and presses it to his lips, praying and thanking the king. Believing he has nothing of value to send in return, he looks about him before offering the reliquary from around his neck. The exchange makes the object part of a reciprocal gesture: the king’s ring carries reassurance to Wolsey, and the reliquary is meant to carry Wolsey’s remembrance back to the king.

Cavendish immediately recognizes what is being given up and exclaims that the reliquary is a piece of the True Cross. His alarm underscores that the object is not merely an expensive ornament. Its sacred significance makes the gift a personal relinquishment, especially as Wolsey is already being stripped of property and compelled to leave his former position.

A sacred object in political traffic

Wolsey begs Norris to wear the reliquary and remember him when he looks at it, asking him also to commend him to the king. The request gives the object a continuing function: it is to stand for the absent cardinal in the royal presence, carrying both memory and appeal. Wolsey’s action suggests that he accepts the king’s reassurance as genuine, even as his household’s possessions are being taken and his future remains uncertain.

Cromwell answers Cavendish’s distress with a deliberately practical claim: another reliquary can be obtained from a maker in Pisa, complete with a certificate asserting its authenticity. The remark treats the sacred object as reproducible merchandise and sharply contrasts with Cavendish’s reverence and Wolsey’s attachment. It also reveals Cromwell’s habit of answering religious and political value in the language of price, supply, and evidence.

The limits of reassurance

Once Norris has delivered the message, Cromwell asks whether the promised recompense can be put in writing. Norris refuses, calling it a confidential message, and Cromwell presses him on what the promise amounts to. He suspects that the king’s offer to repay Wolsey more than has been taken is figurative, not a reliable commitment. The reliquary therefore passes into Norris’s hands amid a negotiation whose assurances Cromwell does not trust.

The object’s significance lies in this unsettled exchange. To Wolsey it is a sacred gift and a means of remaining present to Henry; to Cavendish it is an irreplaceable holy relic; to Cromwell it is replaceable, while the king’s promise is politically ambiguous. The reliquary cannot secure the return of Wolsey’s property or resolve his uncertain standing. Its transfer preserves a gesture of loyalty, but also marks how little control the cardinal retains over the material and political consequences of his fall.