Wolsey was

The ignored illegal practice of enclosure, which involved the fencing-off of common land for sheep rearing, was a profitable method of agriculture that Wolsey clamped down on with an iron fist during his 'rule'. In 1517, aware of the impacts of enclosure on rural depopulation and poverty Wolsey began his assault on the illegal and immoral practice, with the beginning of a national inquiry. As part of the inquiry, many were brought to court and ordered to rebuild buildings and restore land for arable purposes.
Wolsey's determination to end the practice of disclosure and bring those in power to justice was truly commendable. However, in reality the long-term impact of Wolsey's attempts to end enclosure were not as commendable: enclosure certainly continued and rural poverty continued to rise. This represented a failure in domestic policy, and proved that Wolsey did not hold complete power over the nobility. Upon Wolsey's appointment as Lord Chancellor in 1515, the Cardinal became a prominent and frequent member of both the Star Chamber and Court of Chancery. Through his positions on such councils, Wolsey made progression in fair justice to a huge extent, and this was seen as a key success. Presiding over many cases brought forward him; Wolsey ensured that anyone, regardless of class, was able to bring a case before the court. Indeed, under Henry VII, the Star Chamber only held 12 cases a year, whereas under Wolsey, it held ten times that. * Although these were good achievements for such a man it is fair to say these did lead to some negatives in that the huge number of cases the Star Chamber took on led to the system becoming overworked and therefore not being worked efficiently and being used for tom foolery. Also because the star chamber was so popular it overshadowed Wolsey's work in the Court of Chancery and made it seem as though he did nothing much in the chancery court. Finally even though Wolsey had banned enclosure it was purely to spite nobles who hated him as opposed to banning it in the name of equality and fairness. This suggested that he was not bothered about the justice of others but purely justice to those who had previously wronged him. An example of this was in 1516 the Earl of Northumberland was committed to prison for contempt of court
The success of these reforms were limited by the number of courts available and the inability of the legal system to cope with demands. This also made Wolsey enemies.

Shortage of money was a problem for Henry VIII, where as Henry VII had made do by avoiding expensive foreign policy, this was not in keeping with the new King’s desire for war. Wolsey realised existing forms of finance could not be exploited much further, so to overcome this he proposed a more flexible tax - a subsidy. This would still be collected by parliament's authority, but was based on income rather than property
The subsidy was collected four times, each time to help fund the war in France. Subsidy raised £300,000 for the crown and replaced the fifteenths and tenths taxation which was when those towns with a parliament representative lived there they had to pay a tenth of what they owned and the rest had to pay a fifteenth. But the downside to this was that people hated the subsidy which meant every time it came around the people were aggrieved by this and it was of great annoyance to them. Another success was that Wolsey carried out a military survey called the General Prescription, which allowed for loans of £260,000 to be collected and this meant that the money could be used to rebuild the army and then be paid back but unfortunately this did not happen the money was spent frivolously and was not repaid either which caused those who gave money false hopes.
In March and April1525 he proposed an 'Amicable Grant' from both church and taxpayers based on his valuations of their property but this was supposed to be a gift from the people to their king that was said to be repaid but never was.
The grant gave people 10 weeks to find the necessary money. Resistance was immediate and widespread, forcing Wolsey to begin admitting exceptions to the tax as news of these spread, more regions demanded that they too should be exempted. Henry responded to the unrest by stepping in to suspend it because it caused unrest within the people and henry needed them on his side.
The 1526 Eltham Ordinances this was an administrative reform from Wolsey. Wolsey reduced the Privy Council from 12 people to 6, to make the system more efficient which in the long run did cut costs and save money which could be used to help fund the kings spending and wars. This caused a few problems because it removed key figures such as William Compton the groom of the stool not only did he wipe the kings bottom but it meant Wolsey was able to get rid of those who were close to king so that he could be the kings closest member of council and help to advise him.
Wolsey had many roles within in the church and had much policy’s involving it which meant he was a big head figure in the church as he was the papal legate with the power to reform the church but also centralised church affairs showing state control and authority. Wolsey’s attempts at reform were not significant enough to quieten the demands of Protestants. In his capacity as papal legate Wolsey instructed English bishops to carry out their duties more scrupulously and ordered inspections of the quality of religious life in monasteries and other religious institutions. As a result over 2 dozen religious houses were dissolved (closed down and their assets confiscated)Wolsey was also interested in promoting religious teaching and planned to fund a school in Ipswich and establish Cardinal College in Oxford, but fell from power before these could be established
To some, Wolsey embodied everything that needed changing about the church. Wolsey continued collecting his range of religious titles during th3 1520's. He became bishop of Durham in 1523, Bishop of Winchester in 1529 and abbot of St Albans, all attracting good incomes Of course, Wolsey could not hope to fulfil his religious duties in any of these posts, so was permanently absent whilst a deputy acted for him.
There was so much he could do with his power but although he did many good things there were many that abused the powers he had been given but instead chose to abuse it by appointing foreigners as bishops, which led to absenteeism as many couldn't regularly maintain their positions in England and meant that he got the money that was supposed to be paid into the church. He was also pluralism which meant having more than one job within the church and even though he worked within the church he had many illegitimate children and the only true time he became involved with in the church it was mainly for personal benefits. Although he had all this power he didn’t do very much to help the church which means that his domestic policies within the church were usually not very successful.
In conclusion although Wolsey did try in different ways to improve domestic policy such as through legal reforms and the church it was not as successful as maybe he hoped because most of the time his heart was not in the job and he always seemed to have an ulterior motive as to why he was doing something such as when he brought in a law for enclosures it was mainly out of pure spite to the nobles and not from the people who were being treated unfairly. So altogether I think Wolsey’s domestic’s policies were generally a failure because they always caused another problem for him to have to solve and soon he became greedy and all he wanted was ways to provide him with more power and money.