CHAPTER IX.

To Rome.

1529.

1. CATHARINE felt this meeting of peers and commoners as a fearful sign, and went to Greenwich very much depressed.. Her tone of victory was gone, yet her resolve to stand on her rights seemed firm. Vives came to her from Spain, and undertook to write in her defence. But Henry stayed at Bridewell Palace, as though that meeting with his peers and commoners had ended his affair. Anne Boleyn retired to Hever, whence no messages of love had power to bring her back. Catharine found no fault with Anne, who kept aloof from her impetuous lover, even at the cost of separation from a father whom she loved. Yet, why had Henry stayed behind? Was she dismissed for ever from his house? If so, those dances and those junkets of her ladies had been sadly premature.

2. Though every art was used to cause delay, the time was coming when Wolsey and Campeggio were compelled to hold a court and throw away their masks. Byron was gone to Rome as envoy; partly with a proposal from the Cardinal, partly with a mission from the Cardinal's enemies. Wolsey proposed a compromise. "A pontiff," Wolsey argued, "was an infallible priest, who held the rules of earth as History of two Queens. V.

14

freely as he held the keys of heaven. Whatever he might do was right in fact and sound in law. Would he allow the King to have two wives?" The case of holy men in Israel having several wives was pointed out, and Bryan was asked to learn from canonists whether the Pope, although unable in his ordinary power to dispense with the divine law, might not do so of his higher will and power, as judging this affair to be a case beyond the reach of law? Wolsey's enemies engaged this envoy to unearth the Cardinal's intrigues. A cousin of Anne Boleyn, and a favourite of the King, Bryan was eager to promote the match. Keeping his eyes open, he soon saw reason to suspect the Cardinal of underground proceeding at the Vatican. He heard of Wolsey's secret letter to the Pope, and those who sent him out were warned that Wolsey, earnest though he seemed, was playing one game in London, another game in Rome.

3. When pressed to show the breve, which she alleged in her defence, Catharine produced a copy of a paper, the original of which was said to be in Spain. The King believed it spurious. Wolsey and Campeggio refused to read it. No one had ever heard of it before; nor were authentic copies now produced. The date and contents were suspicious; yet the matter seemed so grave that nothing could be done till the original was in the legates' hands. The Queen demanded time; and Henry, fretting at these interruptions of his suit, consented to allow her time. But war between the Crowns was raging, and unless the French allowed her messenger to

the man a pass.

pass, no one could say how long he might take to reach the Spanish court. Henry asked Bellay to get Charles asserted that he had the breve, but he refused to send it to his aunt for her defence. He dared not trust it to the papal legates; but he offered to produce it in a Roman court. Charles knew that England would not argue in a foreign court, especially in a city occupied by Spanish troops, so that an offer to produce that document could be safely made.

4. Clement was vexed with Wolsey for insisting on his plan. "Would to God," wrote Sanga, the Papal secretary, to Campeggio, "that the Cardinal of York had let the matter take a proper course. If the King had done as he thought fit without requiring a papal sanction for his acts, the Pope would not have been to blame." Clement implored his legate to induce the Queen to enter a religious house. When it was clear that Catharine would not enter a religious house, Sanga proposed a curious bargain. If the King would lay aside all further thoughts of a divorce from Catharine, Clement was ready to entertain that project of a marriage "between the King's son" and "the King's daughter." Sanga was also forgetting Anne! Bryan contrived to see a copy of the breve, which he reported to be forged. As Clement's policy seemed delay and nothing else, Rochford and Suffolk were despatched to Paris with a view to sounding François on a course that might result in separating England from the see of Rome. François was delighted by their embassy; for he was tired of Wolsey's tricks; and saw

a great advantage for himself in Henry's separation from the Holy See. Taking Suffolk aside, he bade him beware of the two cardinals: not less of Wolsey than of Campeggio. Suffolk reported his advice, for Suffolk hated Wolsey, as he hated every one who wished to see the crown secured by the birth of males.

5. At last a court was held in the palace of Blackfriars, at which the two Cardinals sat as judges. Warham and the whole body of bishops, excepting Fisher and Standish, occupied the bench. Gardiner acted as chief clerk. Behind the bar stood the chief advocates and proctors; on the King's side, Sampson, Bell, and Tregonell; on the Queen's side, Fisher, Standish, and Ridley. Silence being ordered, the Pope's commission was read, and the crier called out, "Henry, King of England, come into the court!" to which the King made answer, "Here, my lords!” The crier went on, "Catharine, Queen of England, come into the court!" Catharine rose. Making no answer to the court, but, looking round to see how she could get near the King, she passed by the bars and benches, and kneeling down before her husband, cried in passionate accents, "Sir, I beseech you for all the love that hath been between us, and for the love of God, let me have justice and right! Take of me some pity and compassion, for I am a poor woman, and a stranger born out of your dominion. I have here no assured friend, and much less indifferent counsel. I fly to you as to the head of justice within this realm. Alas! sir, wherein have I offended you, or what occasion have you of dis

pleasure, that you intend to put me from you! I take God and all the world to witness that I have been to you a true, humble, and obedient wife . . . I loved all those whom you loved, only for your sake, whether I had cause or no, and whether they were my friends or enemies . . . If there be any just cause by the law that you can allege against me, either of dishonesty or any other impediment, to put me from you, I am well content to depart, to my great shame and dishonour; if there be none, I must lowly beseech you, let me remain in my former estate . . . In the way of charity and for the love of God, spare me the extremity of this new court, until I may be advertised what way and order my friends in Spain will advise me to take. If you will not extend to me so much indifferent favour, then your pleasure be fulfilled, and I commit my cause to God."

6. She rose, and every one supposed she was returning to her former place; but making a proud curtsey to the King, she took the arm of her receiver-general, Griffith, and left the court. "Recall her Highness," cried the King. "Catharine, Queen of England, come into the court," roared the crier. "Madam, you be called again," whispered Griffith in her ear. "On, on!" quoth the Queen; "it maketh no matter. This is no indifferent court for me, therefore I will not tarry. Go on your ways!" Seeing how bravely she bore herself, the King's old love and admiration swelled within his heart. "As the Queen is gone," he said, "I will, in her absence, declare unto you all, my lords here presently as