This was the turning-point in his career, and concludes the first of the three periods into which his life may be divided. During the second period, for upwards of twenty years, he lived abroad, the declared and active enemy of the Protestant movement in his own country. After passing a year at Avignon, he took up his residence a second time at Padua. As he had not yet declared himself publicly against Henry, the latter continued favourably disposed towards him, allowing him the revenues of his deanery, and exempting him from the oath of allegiance to Queen Anne’s children. In 1535, however, there came a change. The king sent to ask his formal opinion on the divorce and the ecclesiastical supremacy. Pole’s answer, afterwards published, with considerable additions, under the title Pro Unitate Ecclesiae, was sent to England early in the next year. It contained a vigorous attack upon Henry’s policy and menaced the king with condign punishment at the hands of the emperor and the king of France if he did not return to his allegiance to Rome. Summoned to England to explain himself, he refused to come. Late in 1536 he was made cardinal, and early next year he was sent as papal legate with the object of uniting Charles V. and Francis I. in an attack upon England, which was to coincide with a rising of the Romanists in that country. The terms of peace between England and France making it impossible for him to remain in the latter country (for he was now attainted of high treason), he passed into Flanders, and soon afterwards (August 1537) returned to Rome. A year later (November 1538) he published his book, together with an apology for his own conduct, addressed to Charles V. In 1539, after the bull of excommunication had been issued against Henry VIII., Pole went to Spain in order to urge Charles to attack England. An invasion was threatened but given up, and Pole retired to Carpentras. From 1539 to 1542 he acted as papal legate at Viterbo. In 1543 he was contemplating an expedition to Scotland with an armed force to aid the anti-English party, and in 1545 he was corresponding with the same party and with Charles V. for a joint attack on England. In the same year he went to Trent in disguise, to avoid the danger of seizure on the way, and presided at some of the preliminary meetings of the council. On the death of Henry VIII. he made an attempt to reconcile himself with the English Government, but in vain. In 1549 he was a candidate for the papacy on the death of Paul III., and at one moment was on the point of being elected, but in the end was unsuccessful, and retired to Maguzzano, on the Lake of Garda. When Edward VI. died Polo was engaged in editing his book Pro Unitate Ecclesiae, with an intended dedication to that king.

The accession of Mary opens the third period of his life. The pope at once appointed him legate, and entered into negotiations with the queen. A marriage between her and Pole was at one moment contemplated, but the state of public feeling in England rendered his return impossible, and he was kept waiting for a year in Flanders and Germany. The reaction at length produced a parliament favourable to Rome, and enabled him to return (November 1554). As legate he received the national submission, and pronounced the absolution, accepting at the same time, on behalf of the pope, the demands of parliament with respect to ecclesiastical lands, &c. Next year he was on two occasions a candidate for the papacy, but was twice disappointed. After Philip’s departure, and the death of Gardiner (October 1555), Pole became Mary’s chief adviser, and, with her, must bear the blame of the persecution which followed on the reunion with Rome. On Cranmer’s death (March 1556) he became archbishop of Canterbury, but soon afterwards (May 1557) fell into disgrace with the pope, Paul IV., who was his personal enemy. On the outbreak of war with France, Paul, the political ally of that country, cancelled Pole’s legatine powers and even charged him with heresy. No remonstrances on the part of Mary and Pole himself could induce the pope to retract this sentence, and Pole died (November 18, 1558) at enmity with the power in whose support he had spent his life.

His chief works are Pro Unitate Ecclesiae, ad Henricum VIII. (ed. princ., Rome, n. d. ); Reformatio Angliae (Rome, 1556); De Concilio (Rome, 1562); De summi Pontificis officio et potestate (Louvain, 1569); De Justificatione (Louvain, 1569); Letters, &c. (ed. Quirini, Brescia, 1744).

See Beccadelli, Vita Poli Cardinalis, Venice, 1553, London, 1690; Quirini. “Vita Rieardi Poli,” prefixed to the Letters; Philipps, History of the Life of R. Pole, Oxford, 1764; also Strype’s Memorials; Fronde's History of England; Hook’s Archbishops of Canterbury; &c.

The distribution and habits of the common polecat have been well described by Blasius in his Säugethiere Deutschlands, and the following is an abstract of his account. The polecat ranges over the greater part of Europe, reaching northwards into southern Sweden, and in Russia to the region of the White Sea. It does not occur in the extreme south, but is common everywhere throughout central Europe. In the Alps it ranges far above the tree-line during the summer, but retreats in winter to lower ground. In fine weather it lives either in the open air, in holes, fox-earths, rabbit-warrens, under rocks, or in woodstacks; while in winter it seeks the protection of deserted buildings, barns, or stables. During the day it sleeps in its hiding place, sallying forth at night to plunder dovecots and hen-houses. It climbs but little, and shows far less activity than the marten. It feeds ordinarily on small mammals, such as rabbits, hamsters, rats, and mice, on such birds as it can catch, especially poultry and pigeons, and also on snakes, lizards, frogs, fish, and eggs. Its prey is devoured only in its lair, but, even though it can carry away but a single victim, it commonly kills everything that comes in its way, often destroying all the inhabitants of a hen-house in order to gratify its passion for slaughter. The pairing time is towards the end of the winter, and the young, from three to eight in number, are born in April or May, after a period of gestation of about two months. The young, if taken early, may be easily trained, like ferrets, for rabbit-catching. The polecat is very tenacious of life and will bear many severe wounds before succumbing; it is also said to receive with impunity the bite of the adder. Its fetid smell has become proverbial. To this it is indebted for its generic name Putorius (derived, as are also the low Latin putacius, the French putois, and the Italian puzzola, from puteo), as well as the designation foumart (i.e. foul marten), and its other English names fitchet, fitchew. Attempts to account for the first syllable of the word polecat rest entirely on conjecture.

The other species of the polecat group are the following

The Siberian Polecat (Putorius eυersmanni), very like the European in size, colour, and proportions, but with head and back both nearly or quite white, and skull more heavily built and sharply constricted behind the orbits, at least in fully adult individuals. It inhabits the greater part of south-western Siberia, extending from Tibet into the steppes of south-eastern European Russia.

The Black-footed or American Polecat (Putorius nigripes), a native of the central plateau of the United States, and extending southwards into Texas. It is very closely allied to the last species, hut has nevertheless been made the type of a special sub-genus named Cynomyonax, or “King of the Prairie Marmots,” a name which expresses its habit of living in the burrows of, and feeding upon, the curious prairie marmots (Cynomys} of the United.States. An excellent account of this species may be found in Dr Elliott Coues’s Fur-bearing Animals of North America.

Lastly, the Mottled Polecat {Putorius sarmaticus), a rare and peculiar species occurring in southern Russia and south-western Asia, extending from eastern Poland to Afghanistan. It differs from the other polecats both by its smaller size and its remarkable coloration, the whole of its upper parts being marbled with large irregular reddish spots on a white ground, and its underside, limbs, and tail being deep shining black. Its habits, which seem to be very much those of the common polecat, have been studied in Kandahar by Captain Thomas Hutton, who has given a vivid description of them in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1843.