in the matter, and to keep her alone and unprotected, in order that she might be the better overwhelmed.1

§ 5. While the king performed his part in the plot, which had been concocted with Wolsey, the cardinal went to play a kindred part with those who were likely to be consulted by the queen, if she consulted any one. He went first to Archbishop Warham. Of Warham there could be little doubt; he had been opposed to the marriage of Henry and Catherine from the first, and it would seem but reasonable to him that the king should have scruples in the matter. But it was necessary to make sure of him, lest he might haply side with the queen. In the letter which Wolsey wrote to the king to tell of his interview with Warham, there are indications that Henry had conceived some suspicion of the cardinal's zeal in the prosecuting the case. He writes (July 1) :-"I take God to record that there is nothing earthly that I covet so much as the advancing your secret matter. When Master Sampson

showed unto me that the queen was very stiff and obstinate,2 affirming that your brother did never know her carnally, and that she desired counsel as well of your subjects as of strangers, I said this device could never come of her head, but of some that were learned, and these were the worst points that could be imagined for the empeching [hindering] of the matter, that she would resort unto the counsel of strangers. For the reverence of God, sir, and most humbly prostrate at your feet, I beseech your Grace, whatsoever report shall be made unto the same, to conceive none opinion of me but that in this matter, and in all other things which may touch your honour and surety, I shall be as constant as any living creature." Visiting the archbishop, the cardinal informed him that the queen knew of the "secret matter," that she took it "displeasantly," but that the king had done much for the "pacification" of her. He told him that the king had "nothing intended nor done, but only for the searching and bringing out of the truth, proceeding on occasion given by the French party, and doubts moved therein by the Bishop of Tarbes." 3 "My Lord of Canterbury liked the fashion and manner very well." Wolsey then arranged with Warham

1 Before this interview had taken place, the queen had contrived to convey a secret message to the Spanish court. The Spanish ambassador in England also was acquainted with it.

This was doubtless on the occasion of Henry's divulging his "scruples" on June 22.

This was the story concocted and agreed upon by the king and cardinal. It was to be represented that the king was only moving in the matter in order to establish Mary's legitimacy. His love for Anne Boleyn was as yet a profound secret. It would seem by the following words that Warham understood at once the object of putting the matter in this way.

what he was to do if the queen demanded him for her counsel; and from Dartford, where he had met him, went to Rochester to see Bishop Fisher. He first extracted diplomatically from the bishop (who was the queen's confessor) that he had a suspicion of something being in progress, that he had had a message from the queen, saying that she should want his advice, and then, first making him swear not to divulge the matter, he told Fisher the story agreed upon as to the objections of the French ambassadors, and the king's desire to make the legitimacy of his daughter certain. He then told him that he (the cardinal) had consulted learned men upon the matter, and that their books were already growing in magna volumina; and then he came to the real point of his visit. Fisher was the queen's confessor, and much beloved by her. He was the person to whom Catherine was almost sure to apply for advice. Wolsey therefore set himself carefully to represent the queen's "stubborn and resentful temper," when she was informed of the proceedings which the king was so kindly taking to establish the validity of the marriage and the legitimacy of her daughter. He thus sought to prejudice her in the mind of the bishop, and according to his own account he succeeded. Fisher, as he represents, found much fault with her stubbornness, and said that he did not doubt he should be able to bring her to a better mind, and cause her "to repente humille, and submit herself to the king's highness." This, however, was not what Wolsey wanted. It would not have been convenient for the conspirators for the bishop to communicate with the queen. "Such an endeavour," says Mr. Brewer, "would have discovered all." 2 The cardinal therefore persuaded the good and unsuspecting bishop to say nothing to the queen until the king should desire him to do so; and, having performed the noble and chivalrous office of "alienating from the unhappy queen the only adviser on whose sincerity and honesty she could rely," he went on his way to France. 3

§ 6. While the cardinal was in France, Henry became more than ever engrossed in his love for Anne Boleyn. He made her a promise that the divorce should certainly be accomplished, and she and her family continued eagerly to press him to take decisive measures. Under this influence the king was made to believe that the cardinal's measures were slow and dilatory, and that he was not fully in earnest about the matter, and was induced to send a mission to the pope independent of Wolsey. The person selected was Dr. Knight, and his purport of his mission was to obtain a

2 Brewer, p. 269.

1 State Papers of Henry VIII., i. 195, 196. 3 State Papers of Henry VIII., i. 196-204. 4 For particulars of early life of Anne Boleyn, see Notes and Illustrations.

dispensation for the king to marry a second wife, though the first still remained undivorced.1 Knight carried with him from England a dispensation ready drawn for this effect. The pope, being in captivity and hard pressed for help, consented to ratify this dispensation, but, on escaping from captivity, he drew back from his promise, and would only grant such a dispensation and commission, as turned out when examined in England, to be worthless.3 The negotiations then again fell into Wolsey's hands.

§ 7. The cardinal, by means of Sir Gregory Cassali, an Italian in the service of England, induced the pope, after much difficulty, to grant a commission to himself and another cardinal to hear and try the case in England, and a dispensation for the king to marry again. These documents being skilfully manipulated by the cardinal St. Quatuor, proved also when examined in England to be insufficient.5

§ 8. Thus, two negotiations having failed, it was determined to try a third with different agents and in a bolder tone. Dr. Fox (afterwards Bishop of Hereford), and Dr. Stephen Gardiner (afterwards Bishop of Winchester), were now (1528) sent to the pope to obtain more ample and satisfactory powers for determining the matter in England, and with a direction that Cardinal Campeggio should be joined by name in the commission with Wolsey. Campeggio was known to the king, having been sent on a former mission to England, and he also held an English bishopric (Salisbury). Gardiner and Fox were to obtain what was called a decretal commission, that is to say, a commission giving the cardinals named the full power of determining the matter, as though they were the pope himself, and leaving no right of appeal. But there was the greatest difficulty in the way of their obtaining this. It would be equivalent on the pope's part to accepting an ex parte statement, and actually decreeing the dissolution of the marriage. His fear of the emperor was too great to allow this. At the same time he was much bound to the King of England, and it was important that he should stand well with him. Thus commenced a series of negotiations of the most perplexing and tormenting character, in which Gardiner and Fox contended as well as they could against all the resources of Roman chicanery-the English ambassadors striving to obtain a decretal commission which should 1 Brewer, 306, 308. There is great probability that Cranmer was the author of this scheme. See Mr. Brewer's note, p. 806.

2 Brewer, p. 315.

3 lb. p. 318.

4 Ib. p. 328. There was a very singular proviso in this dispensation which proves almost conclusively that there had been an illicit connection between Mary Boleyn, elder sister of Anne, and Henry.

Ib. p. 336.

make the decision of the cardinals final, the pope and his advisers striving to put them off with an ordinary commission for the cardinals to hear the case-and a promise that the pope would ratify their sentence. "He willed us," wrote the envoys to Wolsey, "to take a general commission in as ample form and manner as we could devise, with promise of ratification, rather than stick upon this form being new." But to this form the envoys did stick, knowing how much depended on it, and how utterly futile would be any commission to judges to try the cause, when their sentence would be nothing until ratified by the pope.

§ 9. At length they devised the plan of having two commissions, one general simply to hear the case, another special actually to dissolve the marriage. The latter subsequently took the form of what was called the decretal bull, which was entrusted to Campeggio by the pope with fear and trembling, to be shown to the king and some few chief persons, and then immediately to be secretly burned !3

$10. Wolsey had watched with the deepest anxiety the progress of this matter. He felt that his own position was absolutely staked on his success. He knew that "Mistress Anne," whose charms had completely enslaved the king, bore him no good will, and that any delay or failure in the divorce business would ensure his ruin. Thus he presses, beseeches, even threatens the pope, to hasten the completion of the business. But on the other hand the pope was threatened by, and in still greater dread of the emperor, and he dared not finish it. The commission which he had granted to Campeggio and Wolsey to hear the case was not held satisfactory. The king was angry at it, and his dissatisfaction was further increased by the extreme slowness with which Campeggio (who was suffering from gout, and could move but slowly) made his journey into England.

§ 11. He arrived September 18, 1528, but the case was not proceeded with, for there had arisen another stumbling-block. It was discovered that at the time when Julius II. had granted the dispensation to Henry to marry Catherine, he had also issued a brief, reciting and reiterating his dispensation in stronger terms than were used in the dispensation itself. This brief had been

1 Records of Reformation, i. 108. 2 lb. i. 116. 3 Brewer, 443. 4 She was aware that Wolsey had done his best to dissuade the king from marrying her, and had recommended a French princess. There were also various other reasons why there was enmity between them. 5 Wolsey to the Pope. Burnet, Records, p. i. Nos. viii. 6 Letter from Fox in England to Gardiner at Rome. formation, i. 157

xxii. xxiii. Records of Re

deposited in the Spanish archives. It was absolutely necessary for the success of the cause either that this brief should be got hold of and destroyed, or that it should be proved to be a forgery.1 The former plan was attempted and failed; the latter was then adopted. But the pope could not be induced to declare the brief a forgery, and hence the long delay of seven months before the Legatine Court sat. Neither would the pope make any promise that he would not revoke the suit to Rome.3 In fact, now he was completely under the influence of the emperor.

§ 12. During the time that the action of the Legatine Court was checked in England, various steps were taken which it was thought might facilitate the cause. The bishops, called together by Wolsey's legatine authority, had been consulted. Their answer was that the case was doubtful, and they desired that learned clerks of the universities might be consulted.* Pace, Dean of Windsor, had written to the king that a friar named Wakefield was prepared to prove against all Christendom that this dispensation was beyond the pope's power to grant. Various attempts were made upon the queen to induce her to yield and "enter into religion." But Catherine firmly resisted all these suggestions. She felt the justice of her cause, and decided to condemn herself by her own act. Another attempt to facilitate the matter was a public speech made by the king to an assembly of notables called together at Blackfriars. Very great dissatisfaction and angry feeling had been excited among the people by this barefaced attempt to get rid of one wife, and to put another in her place, for all the world now knew of Henry's devotion to Anne Boleyn.

§ 13. To meet, and, if possible, to remove this bad feeling, the king condescended to address his lords and councillors, and any others who could get near enough to hear him. He declared that the "simple and only reason why he wished to move in the matter was lest his true heir should not be known at the time of his death. He referred to the dreadful mischiefs formerly wrought in England by a disputed succession, and that though he had a fair daughter, yet the French councillors had raised a doubt as to her legitimacy, and that his conscience was daily and hourly troubled by the matter. Accordingly, he had asked counsel of the greatest clerks of Christendom, and had sent for the legate as a man indifferent to judge and decide the matter. He solemnly

1 Brewer, p. 444.

1b. pp. 458-461.

3 Records of Reformation, i. 236, 249, 254. Cavendish, Life of Wolsey; Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog. i. 539. 5 Le Grand Hist. du Divorce, i. 1; Burnet, Hist. Ref. i. 645. Brewer, 468; Hall's Chronicle, p. 755 (4to ed.)