the Lord Herbert had published it: but since that history is like to be confined to our own nation, and this may probably go further, I put it in the Collection; and the rather, because the Lord Herbert, taking it from a copy as I do, seems in some doubt concerning it: but probably he had not seen the letter that Wolsey wrote to Gardiner, in which he mentions the pollicitation, that he had in his hands, with several other letters that mention it very frequently. The copy that I publish (Collect. Numb. xv), was taken from a transcript attested by a notary, which is the reason of the oddness of the subscription.

In the mean time Warham called such bishops as were in town to him, and proposed to them the king's scruples; which being weighed by them, a writing was drawn up to this purpose; that having heard the grounds of the king's scruples, relating to his marriage, they all made this answer, that the causes which gave the king the present agitation, and disturbance of conscience, were great and weighty; and that it did seem necessary to them all, for him to consult the judgment of their holy father the pope in that matter. This was signed by Warham, Tonstall, Fisher, and the bishops of Carlisle, Ely, St. Asaph, Lincoln, and Bath, on the 1st of July, 1529†. And I incline to think, that this was the paper of which Cavendish, whom I followed too implicitly in my former work, gave a wrong account, as brought out when the legates were sitting on the king's cause. There is no reason to doubt of Fisher's signing this; and Cavendish, who wrote upon memory almost thirty years after, might be mistaken in the story; for the false account that he gives of the battle of Pavia shows how little he is to be depended on. At this time the pope, in a letter to Wolsey, offered to go in person to Spain, or to any place where an interview should be agreed on, to mediate a general peace. This Wolsey wrote over to the king's ambassadors at Rome, on the 19th of December; and in the same letter he orders them to offer the guard to the pope in the name of the two kings and adds, that Turenne should command that part of it which was to have their pay sent from France, and Sir Gregory Cassal that which the king was to pay.

In prosecuting the history of the divorce, I must add a great deal out of some French authors. Bellay, the Sieur de Langey, has writ memoirs of that time with great judgment, and very sincerely. I find also many letters relating to those transactions both in the Mélanges Historiques, and in Le Grand's third tome. These I shall follow in the series + Cotton Libr. Vitell. b. 11,

* Rymer.

Life of Wolsey.

in which things were transacted, which will be found to give no small confirmation, as well as large additions to what I formerly published in my history. The first of these was much employed in embassies, and was well informed of the affairs of England, both his brothers being at different times employed to negociate affairs in that court. John in particular, then bishop of Bayonne, afterwards of Paris*; and Cardinal Le Grand, as Lord Herbert had done before, has given the relation of the answer that the emperor gave by word of mouth, and afterwards in writing, to Clarencieux, when he came with a French king at arms to denounce war in the name of the two kings to the emperor.

Jan. 27, 1528, demand was made of great debts, that the emperor owed the king; among these, the sum forfeited for his not marrying the Princess Mary was one. To that the emperor answered, that before he was married, he required the king to send her to him, which was not done and by letters that he intercepted, he saw that the king was treating a marriage for her with the king of Scotland, long before the emperor was married. It was farther said to that herald, that a report went current, that the king designed a divorce, and upon that to marry another wife. "The emperor said, he had in his hands ample dispensations for the marriage; nor could the king go on in that design, without striking at the pope's authority; which would give great scandal, and occasion much disturbance, and give the emperor just cause of war. This would show what faith, what religion, what conscience, and what honour the king had before his eyes. He had offered his daughter to him in marriage, and was now going to get her declared a bastard; he ascribed all this to the ill offices done by the cardinal of York, who was pushed on by his ambition and avarice, because he would not order his army in Italy to force the electing him to the popedom; which, he said, both the king and the cardinal desired him in letters that they wrote to him on that occasion and, because he had not in that satisfied his pride, he had boasted that he would so embroil the emperor's affairs, though England should be ruined by it, that he should repent his using him so." This seems to be much aggravated; for it may be easily supposed, that the king and Wolsey might, in the letters that they wrote to the emperor at the last conclave, desire him to order his troops to draw near Rome, to keep all quiet, till, if he was chosen, he might get thither. Yet it is not probable, that they could desire so barefaced a thing as the emperor here fastened on them.

* Page 38.

He in that, perhaps, was no truer, than when he said he had in his hands ample dispensations for the king's marriage; though it appears these were forged for the date of the breve being the same with the bull, both bearing date the 26th of December, 1503, it was plainly false. For Rymer has printed one attestation from Rome, that the year in the breves begins on Christmas-day; so if it had been a true piece, it must have had the date of 1504. He has likewise published an authentic attestation, signed by the cardinal chamberlain, that in the register of the breves there was none to be found relating to the king's dispensation for his marriage, but one dated the 6th of July 1504, and another the 22d of February 1505.

The bishop of Bayonne * made a bold proposition to Wolsey (Jan. 2, 1528): he thought it might be a proper method to engage the pope to depose the emperor for such enormous. felony as he had committed against him; which would secure that see from all such attempts for the future. The cardinal, after a little reflection on it, swore to him that he would pursue that thought; but, it seems, it was let fall.

When Gardiner and Fox were sent to Rome, they passed through France, with letters from Wolsey to Montmorency for his assisting them t. It seems the people were expressing their uneasiness upon these steps made in order to the divorce; of which the bishop of Bayonne wrote to the court of France (May 24); which was, upon his letters, so talked of at Paris, that Wolsey reprimanded him for it; though in his own excuse he writes, that the bishop of Bath had said it more openly than he had written it.

On the 8th of June, it seems ‡, matters went not well at Rome; for Wolsey complained to the bishop of Bayonne of the pope, for not doing them justice; who had served him so well, both before his advancement, and ever since. They also apprehended, that Campegio, then named to come over as legate, who was subject to the gout, would by that pretence manage matters so as to keep them long in suspense.

At that time the sweating-sickness raged so, that the court was in dread of it §. It broke out in the legate's house, June 30; some died of it: he upon that stole away privately, without giving notice whither he went. The king made his. last will, and received all the sacraments: he confessed himself every day, and received the sacrament every holy-day. The queen did the same; and so did Wolsey.

In another letter, without date ||. Bayonne gives an ac

count of a free conference he had with Wolsey; who told him, "he had done many things against the opinion of all England: upon which, many took occasion to reproach him, as being wholly French; so he must proceed warily: the French would feel their loss, if his credit were lessened; therefore it was necessary that the bishop should make the king and his council here apprehend, that this alliance was not to their prejudice. The king had of late (as Bayonne had from good hands) said some terrible words to the cardinal, apprehending that he was cold in his matter. Wolsey said to him, that if God gave him the grace once to see the hatred of the two nations extinguished, and a firm friendship settled between the two kings; and that he could get the laws and customs of the nation a little changed, the succession secured, and, upon the king's second marriage, an heir male born, he would immediately retire, and serve God all the rest of his life." Here were many things to be done before his retirement: yet the bishop did believe he indeed intended, upon the first good occasion, to retire from all affairs; for he could not but see, that his credit must lessen upon the king's second marriage. He was also making haste to furnish his episcopal palaces, and to finish his colleges; and he seemed to him to prepare for a storm. Gardiner was at this time advancing the king's business all that was possible at Rome. I did, in my second volume *, publish among the records a letter of his that was written in April after his coming to Rome. The substance of it is, "He had acquainted the pope with the secret message that the princes of Germany had sent the king, to see if that would work on his fears; for he says, the pope was a man of such a nature, that he is never resolved in any thing, but as he is compelled by some violent affection. He assures the king the pope will do nothing that may offend the emperor; nor was it reasonable for him to do it, except he would remove his see to some other place: for while he was at Rome he was in the emperor's power. By his words and manner, the pope seemed to favour the king; but he was confident he would do nothing. He believed if the cause were determined by the legates, they at Rome would be glad of it: and if the emperor should begin a suit against that, they would serve him. as they now did the king, and drive off the time by delays: so he put the king on getting Campegio to judge for him, which should be a short work; and he assures him nothing was to be expected from Rome but delays. They had put the king's cause, if it should be brought to Rome, in the *Vol. ii, Coll. Rec. No. xxvi, p. 354.

Ver. III, PARTI.

F

hands of two advocates (the same that pleaded for the king afterwards in the excusatory plea). The pope would hear no disputation about his power of dispensing; but, so the pope did not decide upon that ground, he would not care whether the king's cause were decided upon it, or not and he believed the pope was resolved to meddle no more in the king's matter, but to leave it with the legates. He desired his letter might not be showed to either of the legates. With that bearer he sent over the pope's promise, in which he had got some words to be put, that he thought favoured the king's cause, as much, and more, than if the decretal commission, that was in Campegio's hands, should be showed ; so he thought the pope ought to be no more moved in that matter." The words he mentions are, cum nos justitiam ejus causæ perpendentes; we considering the justice of his cause. These are in the promise, or pollicitation, which I do now publish, and they prove this to be a true copy, since we have an authentic proof of the very words that seemed the greatest ground to doubt of its truth.

About a fortnight after this, Gardiner wrote another letter to the king, which will be found in the Collection (No. xv). A motion was then made at Rome for recalling the powers sent to the legates; but he did not think it was made in earnest, but only to stop the ambassadors in their other suits. The pope told them, that the emperor had advertised him that the queen would do nothing in the matter but as the king should command her; therefore he would look after the cause the more earnestly. This the pope seemed to tell them, that they should not inquire who was the queen's proctor. The ambassadors were amazed to see by Campegio's letters that were showed them, that neither he, nor Campanus, had made any promise in the pope's name to the king, but only in general terms: considering that they had mentioned the plenitude of the pope's power, which they trusted he would use in that cause. He writes he did not succeed in that which he was ordered to move, which he did indeed apprehend could not be obtained: he lays the blame on the pope, or some other, but it became not him to fasten that on any (perhaps this pointed at Wolsey); the rest relates to the bulls, probably demanded by the cardinal for his colleges this was dated the 4th of May; he had a letter writ to him a month before this, by Anne Boleyn, in which she expresses a great sense of the service he was doing her : it seems by it, that, at his first coming to Rome, he had great hopes of success, but these were then much abated.

At this time King Henry was writing every day letters full of passion to that lady. Some way or other, they fell