termine so weighty a question. Warham also, as he says, made the proposal of choosing thirty, to whom the question might be referred. In another place, he quotes the book that was published for the divorce; which affirms, that the determinations of the universities were made without any corruption. The questions were not proposed to all the universities in the same terms: for to some, as to the faculty of the canon-law at Paris, and to those of Angiers and Bourges, the consummation of the marriage is expressly asserted in it. And in the book in which the determinations of the universities are printed, those of the universities in England are not mentioned. These are all the strictures he wrote on this part of my history. Some more particulars are given us by Rymer (tom. xiv). concerning the determination of the foreign universities. A copy of that made at Bologna was carried to the governor upon which five doctors swore before Crook, that they had not carried it to him: and that they had kept no copy of it. This is attested by a notary; and the clerks and notaries swore the same, and that they did not know who carried it. By this, it seems, Crook had engaged them to secrecy; and that the matter coming some way to the governor's knowledge, they took these oaths to assure him, that they had not broken their word to him. The decree in Padua was made July the 1st, and was at tested by the Podesta, and afterwards by the Doge of Venice on the 20th of September; who affirm, that eleven doctors were present; and that the determination was made with the unanimous consent of the whole body. And this is attested by notaries. But now the scene must be removed to Rome for some time. The pope had ordered a citation to be made of the king to appear before him, to hear his cause judged. The king would not suffer any such citation to be intimated to him: so it was affixed at some churches in Flanders, at Tournay, and Bruges. The king treated this with contempt; while the emperor and his ministers were pressing the pope to proceed to censures. The king of France interposed, to obtain delays; in consideration of whom several delays were granted, and the pope said, if King Henry would proceed no further in the matter of the supremacy, he would yet grant a further delay: and whereas the French king pressed for a delay of four months, the pope said, if the king of England would own him as his judge, he would give not only the time that was asked, but a year or more. Here I shall give an account of a long letter that the king wrote to the pope; there is no date put to it in the copy from which I took it, but the substance of it makes me conclude, it was writ about this time. It will be found in the Collection (No. xviii). *In it he complains that no regard was had, neither to his just desires, nor to the intercession of the Most Christian King that the prayers of his nobility were not only despised, but laughed at. All this was far contrary to what he expected; and was indeed so strange, that he could scarce think the pope was capable of doing such things, as he certainly knew he was doing. The pope, against what all men thought just, refused to send judges to come to the place where the cause lay. The holy councils of old had decreed, that all causes should be determined there where they had their beginning: for this he quotes St. Cyprian among the ancients, and St. Bernard among the moderns; who were of that mind. The truth would be both sooner and more certainly found out, if examined on the place, than could possibly be at a distance. The pope had once sent legates to England, and what reason could be given why this should not be done again? But he saw the pope so devoted to the emperor, that every thing was done as he dictated. The queen's allegation, that England was a place so suspected by her that she could not expect to have justice done her in it, must be believed, against the clearest evidence possible to the contrary. The king bore with the liberties that many took who espoused her cause more than was fitting; nor did he threaten any, or grow less kind than formerly, to those who declared for the marriage; and yet the pope pretended he must give credit to this, and he offered no other reason for his not sending judges to England. This was to fasten a base reflection upon the king, and an injustice, which he must look on as a great indignity done him. "He further complains, that the pope took all possible methods to hinder learned men from delivering their opinion in his cause; and though, after long and earnest applications, he did give leave by his breves to all persons to give their opinion in it; yet his own magistrates did, in his name, threaten those that were against the power of dispensing with the laws of God: this was particularly done at Bologna. The emperor's ministers everywhere, in contempt of the permission granted by the pope, terrified all who gave their opinion for the king; at which the pope connived, if he did not consent to it. The pope's nuncio did in France openly, and to the king himself, declare against the king's cause, as being founded neither on justice nor on reason: he still ex * Among Rymer's MSS. : pected that the pope would have no regard to the prerogative of his crown, and to the laws of England, which are as ancient as the pope's laws are; and that he will not cite him to answer out of his kingdom, nor send any inhibitions into it for he will suffer no breach to be made on the laws during his reign. He was resolved to maintain that which was his own, as he would not invade that which belonged to another he did not desire contention, he knew the ill effects such disputes would have: upon all which he expected the pope's answer." This had no effect on the pope, so far from it, that upon a representation made to him in Queen Katherine's name, that King Henry seemed resolved to proceed to a second marriage, the pope sent out a second breve on the 5th of January, 1531, declaring any such marriage to be null, and the issue by it to be illegitimate, denouncing the severest censures possible against all that should be any ways assisting in it, and requiring the king to live with the queen in all conjugal affection until the suit was brought to a conclusion. Something was to be done to stop proceedings at Rome; or upon this an immediate rupture must follow. This brought on the sending an excusator in the name of the king and kingdom, to show that the king was not bound to appear upon the citation, nor yet to send a proctor to appear in his name. Sigismund Dondalus and Michael de Conrades, two eminent advocates, were brought to Rome, to maintain the plea of the excusator. They sent over the substance of their pleadings, which was printed at London by Berthelet. The sum of it was, Capisuchi, dean of the Rota, had cited the king to Rome to answer to the queen's appeal : the chief instructions sent by Carn were, to insist on the indignity done to the king, to cite him to come out of his kingdom but it seems that was a point that the advocates thought fit to leave to the ambassadors; they thought it not safe for them to debate it, so they pleaded on other heads. They insisted much on that (de loco tuto), that no man ought to be cited to a place where he was not in full safety. It could not be safe, neither for the king nor the kingdom, that he should go so far from it. They showed likewise, that to make a place safe, all the intermediate places_through which one must pass to it, must be likewise safe. The pope therefore ought to send delegates to a safe place, either (in partibus) where the cause lay, or in the neighbourhood of it. It was said against them, that a cause once revived in the court of Rome could never be sent out of it: but they replied, the pope had once sent delegates into England in this cause, and upon the same reason he might do again: in deed, the cause was never in the court, for the king was never in it. But it was said, the king might appear by a proctor: they answered, he was not bound to send a proxy where he was not bound to appear in person, but was hindered by a just impediment: nor was the place safe for a proxy. In a matter of conscience, such as marriage was, he could not constitute a proctor; for by the forms he was to empower him fully, and to be bound by all that he should do in his name. It is true, in a perpetual impediment, a proctor must be made; but this was not perpetual: for the pope might send delegates. An excusator was to be admitted in the name of the king and kingdom, when the impediment was clear and lasting: they confessed if it was only probable, a proctor must be constituted. There was no danger to be apprehended in the king's dominions. The queen's oath was offered, that she could not expect justice in that case. They showed this ought not to be taken, and could not be well grounded; but was only the effect of weak fear: it appearing evidently, that not only the queen herself, but that all who declared for her, were safe in England. They did not insist on this, that the court ought to sit (in partibus) in the place where the cause lay it seems they found that would not be borne at Rome but they insisted on a court being to sit in the neighbourhood. They showed, that though the excusator's powers were not so full as to make him a proxy; yet they were not defective in that which was necessary for excusing the king's appearance, and for offering the just impediments, in order to the remanding of the matter. The book is full of the subtilties of the canon law, and of quotations from canonists. Thus this matter was pleaded, and, by a succession of many delays, was kept on foot in the court of Rome above three years; chiefly by the interposition of Francis: for Langey tells us that the king of France wrote once or twice a week to Rome, not to precipitate matters. That court, on the other hand, pressed him to prevail with King Henry not to give new provocations. He wrote to Rome from Arques in the beginning of June, 1531, and complained of citing the king to Rome: he said, learned persons had assured him that this was contrary to law, and to the privilege of kings, who could not be obliged to leave their kingdom; adding, that he would take all that was done for or against King Henry as done to himself. There is a letter writ from the cardinal of Tournon to King Francist, but without a date, by which it appears, * Melange. Hist. Lettres de Roy, p. 1. † P. 8. "that the motion of an interview between the pope and the king of France was then set on foot: and he assures the king, that the pope was resolved to satisfy him at their meeting; that he would conduct King Henry's affair so dexterously, that nothing should be spoiled: he must in point of form give way to some things that would not be acceptable to him, that so he might not seem too partial to King Henry; for whom, out of the love that he bore to King Francis, he would do all that was in his power, but desired that might not be talked of. On the 4th of May he wrote to him, that the emperor threatened, that, if King Henry went on to do that injury to his aunt, he would make war on him by the king of Scotland: but they believed he would neither employ his purse, nor draw his sword in the quarrel. Langey reports the substance of King Henry's letters to Francis: he complained of the pope's citing him to answer at Rome, or to send a proxy thither. In all former times, upon such occasions, judges were sent to the place where the cause lay. Kings could not be required to go out of their dominions : he also complained of the papal exactions. Now there were two interviews set on foot, in hopes to make up this matter, that seemed very near a breach. Francis had secretly begun a negociation with the pope for the marriage with the duke of Orleans, afterwards King Henry the Second, and the famous Katherine de Medicis: Francis, whose heart was set on getting the dutchy of Milan above all other things, hoped by this means to compass it for his second son. He likewise pretended, that, by gaining the pope entirely to his interest, he should be able to make up all matters between King Henry and him. But to lay all this matter the better, the two kings were to have an interview, first in the neighbourhood of Calais, which the bishop of Bayonne, who was now again in England, was concerting*. King Henry pressed the doing it so that he might come back by All-Saints to hold his parliament. The bishop saw King Henry would be much pleased, if Francis would desire him to bring Anne Boleyn over with him, and if he would bring on his part the queen of Navarre. The queen of France was a Spaniard, so it was desired she might not come: he also desired that the king of France would bring his sons with him, that no imperialists might be brought, nor any of the Raillieurs (Gaudiseurs), for the nation hated that sort of people. Bayonne writes, he had sworn not to tell from whom he had this hint of Anne Bo VOL. III, PART I. Le Grand, p. 553. I |