by Francis the Courier, of the last of February, as well to the Pope, as to me Edward Karne, for the admission of me and the Matter excusatory, we shall, according to your Highness's pleasure and order assigned, in the common Letter sent unto us by your said Highness, proceed and do therein as may be most beneficial and profitable for the same. And thus most humbly we commend us to your Highness, beseeching Almighty God to preserve the same in felicity and health many years. At Rome the 28th of March 1532. Your Highness's most humble Subjects, Servants, and Chaplains, WILLIAM BENET. EDWARD Karne. EDMOND BONNER. XLV. Another Letter concerning the Process at Rome. An Original. (Cotton Libr. Vitel. B. 13.) PLEASETH it your Highness, sithen our Letters of the 23 of March, here hath been great labour, and soliciting, to bring the Disputation publick out of the Consistory kept once in the week into the Congregations, to be observed and kept before the Pope's Holiness and the Cardinals, in such place, and as oft as should please them; to the intent, as we perceived, that the said Disputation might be the sooner ended, and not take such effect as it was devised for. And upon this great importune labour, I Edward Karne was monished oftentimes to send Conclusions to be proposed in the said Congregations, as well in Palm-Sunday week, as in Easter-week, as appeareth by the Copies of the Intimations sent herewithal to your Highness: Upon which Intimations I delivered certain Conclusions, according to the order taken at the beginning, with a Protestation devised by your Grace's Counsel here, De non recedendo_ab_eodem ordine, et de proponendo eusdem Conclusiones in Consistorio, juxta eundem ordinem et non aliter. That notwithstanding the Pope's Holiness caused me to be monished again, cum Comminatione, that if I would not come in, cum Advocatis, the third day of April, procederet ad ulteriora protestatione me a pravia non obstante. Whereupon, with the advice of your said Learned Counsel, I conceived a Protestation, and the same delivered to the Pope's Holiness the said third day in the morning, protesting as it was therein contained, and causing it to be registered by the Datary; of the which Protestation your Highness shall also receive a Copy herewithall. This notwithstanding, the Pope's Holiness, the said third day in the afternoon made a Congregation, where the said Protestation was examined; and after the Treaty had upon the same, we were in conclusion remitted again to the Consistory, there to be heard, as much as the Consistory intendeth to hear, upon the Conclusions that are published; which was much more beneficial to us, than to have had all proposed in Congregations to have been kept, as is afore. And by this means the Matter was shifted off, and deferred unto the 10th of this month; at which time the Pope's Holiness kept the Consistory. And one Mr. Providal, a singular good Clerk, which came from Bonony for the furtherance of your Highness's Cause, very compendiously, and after good fashion and handling, to the great contentation, as appeared, of the Audience there, purposed three Conclusions, of the which two concerned the habilitation of me Edward Karne, to lay in the Matters Excusatory: And the third was, that the Cause ought to be committed, extra curiam, ad locum tutum utrique parti: Of the which Conclusions, and also his Sayings, the said 10th day, your Highness shall receive a Copy here-withal. And forasmuch as at the said Consistory, neither the Imperials, neither yet the Queens Counsel did appear; I, Edward Karne, with the advice of your Highness's Counsel, said to the Pope's Holiness, after the Proposition made by Mr. Providal, that his Holiness might perceive well, that if the Party adverse had any good matter to alledg, against such things as were deduced for the justification of the Conclusions, and matter Excusatory, and did not diffide of their part, they would not have absented themselves, or shrunken from the Disputations, which they afore had accepted and taken; wherefore I accused their contumacy and absence, desiring that it might be enacted, and thereupon departed from the Consistory, for that day dissolved. The 14th of this present, the Pope's Holiness caused Intimation to be made unto me, of the Consistory to be kept the 17th of the same; willing me to be there, cum Advocatis, to dispute all the Conclusions not proposed and disputed Upon the which Intimation, I delivered to the Datary three Conclusions, the 19, the 20, and the 21 in order, with a Protestation devised by your Learned Counsel, sent here-withal to your Highness: And in the said Consistory, Mr. Providel did also alledg for the justification of the Matters and conclusions; and over that answered to such Objections as he thought the Party adverse to make foundation upon, and that very compendiously, being sorry that the Imperials, and Queen's Counsel, did not come in to dispute the said Conclusions; and the sayings of the said Mr. Providel in the said Consistory, with my Protestation also, in not agreeing to the term, as peremptory, your Highness shall perceive in writing sent here-withal. As concerning the seven Conclusions yet remaining undisputed, we think the Pope's Holiness will hear us no further in the Consistory: saying, that the Part adverse will not abide the Disputations, nor come in to the same: Nevertheless to take otherwise out of the Consistory, with the Cardinals Information, his Holiness is well contented. And verily, Sir, to study, labour, set forward, and call upon such things as may confer to the advancement of the Matter, and your Highness's Purpose, there shall not want neither good will, neither diligence to the uttermost, that we can excogitate or desire, as hitherto surely neither Party hath failed; trusting in God that thereby, if Justice be not oppressed, some good effect shall follow, to the good contentation of your Highness. With these Presents, your Highness shall also receive a Copy of all things that were spoken as well for your Highness's behalf, as by the Party adverse, in the Consistory, the 20th day of March. And thus most humbly we commend us to your Highness, beseeching Almighty God long to continue the same in his most Royal Estate. At Rome, the 29 of April. Your Highness's most humble Subjects, and poor Servants, EDWARD KARNE. XLVI. A Letter from Benet and Cassali about the Process. (Cotton. Libr. Vitell. B. 13.) SERENISSIME et Invictissime Domine noster Supreme, salutem. Tribus Superioribus Consistoriis ante vacationes habitis, de Causa Excusatoria actum fuit; sed quid illud fuerit quod in primo egerunt rescire non potuimus, quia Cardinales pœna Excommunicationis prohibiti fuerant quicquam revelare. Secundo etiam aliquid super eadem causa tractarunt, quod itidem nos celaverunt. Sed ultimo illo, quod die octavo Julii Congregatum fuit, ita ut inferius pa tebit, constituerunt. Quum ergo postero die Pontificem adivissemus, ut quod decretum foret cognosceremus, ab eo sic accepimus; nolle se ore suo, propterea quod Jurisperitus non sit, Consistorii deliberationem pronunciare; quocirca die sequenti ad ipsum rediremus, quoniam vellet Cardinales Montem et Anconitanum id ipsum nobis proferre: Et nihilominus idem quod deinde ex ipsis Cardinalibus audivimus tunc explicavit noluit tamen nobis esse Responsi loco. Igitur sicut dixerat, redivimus, et nobis duo illi Cardinales sic retulerunt summum Dominum et Cardinales decrevisse, literas Exhortatorias cum a Pontifice, tum a Collegio Cardinalium, Majestati vestræ scribendas esse, quibus vestram Majestatem adhortarentur, ut velit hic ad Causam Procuratorem constituere, idq; per totum Octobrem proximum facere. Pontifex præterea suadebat ut ad idem nos Majestatem Vestram cohortaremur, iidemq; fecerunt Cardinales, volentes omnes ambiguitates et dubitationes tollere. Respondimus, velle quod nobis injungebatur Majestati Vestræ scribere; verum illud non posse reticere quod erga Majestatem Veştram inique actum videbatur; quum neq; Excusator admissus, neq; ipsius allegationes forent probatæ ac receptæ, id quod tam sæpe instantissime petitum fuerat. Præterea non posse nos non valde mirari, ac etiam summopere, conqueri, quod quum pro comperto haberemus juris esse id fieri, esset nihilominus denegatum; quum præsertim petendo Mandatum procuratorium, tacite viderentur rejicere_Excusatorem, et per ipsum allegata. Sic autem illi nobis Responderunt, neque Excusatorem fuisse rejectum, neq; per ipsum allegata, sed in eodem, quo prius, statu permanere; hoc autem excusatorium negotium minime, ut nobis judicibus clarum, sed dubium videri. Ibiq; Anconitanus quædam nostris contraria adduxit, quæ D. Karne suis literis recenset. Dicebant quoq; in hac re favorabilius nos, quam adversarios fuisse tractatos; illud etiam addentes, quod si procuratorium mandatum mittatur, justitia optime ministrabitur, ac etiam quatenus fieri possit, favorabiliter; idque et Pontifex et Cardinales ambo constanter asseverabant. Quum vero nos sæpius diceremus, excusatorem admitti debuisse, dixerunt, si recte considerare velimus, nos idem ipsum re habuisse; si enim (aibant), Procurator hic constituatur, literæ Remissoriæ et Compulsoriæ decernentur, ad testes in partibus examinandos. Itemq; vir aliquis probus ad id delegabitur ad utramq; partem, testesque scil. examinandos, ita ut processus in partibus fiat: Atque hoc pacto nos id consequi quod desideramus, quoniam quod ad totius causæ decisionem pertinet, ex eo quod de Pontificis potestate cog noscendum, et de jure Divino disceptandum sit, ac aliis etiam de causis, ipsam Decisionem Pontifici integram semper reservari nihilominus oporteret, quamvis causam alibi quam Romæ cognosci permissum fuisset. Nobis certe visum est, haud parum esse quod obtinuimus, longe enim pejora timebamus, quum nemo in urbe esset, qui non crederet Excusatorem una cum suis allegationibus rejectum iri. Hunc quidem eventum rei Cæsariani ægerrime tulerunt. Optime valeat Majestas Vestra. Romæ die 13 Julii 1532. Vestræ Regiæ Majestatis Hier. Episcopus Wigornien. GREGORIO CASSALI. XLVII. The Sentence of Divorce. (In an Inspeximus Rot. Pat. 25. Reg. 2d Part.) Anno Incarnationis millesimo quingentesimo tricesimo tertio, Indictione sexta, Clementis Papæ decimo, mensis. Maii vicesimo tertio, in Ecclesia Conventuali Monasterii Sancti Petri Dunstabliæ, Ordinis Sancti Augustini Lincoln. Dioces. nostri Cantuarien. Provinciæ. IN Dei Nomine, Amen. Nos Thomas Permissione Divina Cantuarien. Archiepiscopus, totius Angliæ Primas, et Apostolicæ Sedis Legatus, in quadam causa inquisitionis de et super viribus Matrimonii inter Illustrissimum et Potentissimum Principem et Dominum nostrum Henricum Octavum Dei Gratia Angliæ et Franciæ Regem, Fidei Defensorem et Dominum Hiberniæ, ac Serenissimam Dominam Catharinam nobilis memoriæ Ferdinandi Hispaniarum Regis Filiam contracti et consummati, quæ coram nobis in judicio ex officio nostro mero aliquandiu vertebatur, et adhuc vertitur, et pendet indecisa, rite et legitime procedentes, visis primitus per nos et diligenter inspectis, articulis sive capitulis in dicta causa objectis et ministratis, una cum responsis eis ex parte dicti Illustrissimi et Potentissimi Principis Henrici Octavi factis et redditis, visisque et similiter per nos inspectis plurimorum Nobilium et aliorum testium fide dignorum dictis et dispositionibus in eadem causa habitis et factis, visisq: præterea et similiter per nos inspectis, quamplurium fere totius Christiani orbis Principalum Academiarum Censuris ceu Conclusionibus Magistralibus, etiam tam Theologorum quam Jurisperitorum responsis et opinionibus, utriusq; deniq; Provinciæ Angli |