that he had been offered the Duchy of Milan, if CH. 7. he would look on while the emperor and the pope A.D. 1533. attacked England.* This language bears all the character of sincerity; and when we remember that it followed immediately upon a close and intimate communication of three weeks with Clement, it is not easy to believe that he could have mistaken the extent of the pope's promises. We may suppose Clement for the moment to have been honest, or wavering between honesty and falsehood; we may suppose further that Francis trusted him because it was undesirable to be suspicious, in the belief that he was discharging the duty of a friend to Henry, and of a friend to the church, in offering to mediate upon these terms. November. of Henry. But Henry was far advanced beyond the point Suspicions at which fair words could move him. He had trusted many times, and had been many times deceived. It was not easy to entangle him again. It mattered little whether Clement was weak or false; the result was the same--he could not be trusted. To an open English understand * Commission of the Bishop of Paris: LEGRAND, vol. iii.; BURNET, vol. iii. p. 128; FOXE, vol. v. p. 106-111. The commission of the Bishop of Bayonne is not explicit on the extent to which the pope had bound himself with respect to the sentence. Yet either in some other despatch, or verbally through the Bishop, Francis certainly informed Henry that the pope had promised that sentence should be A.D. 1533. His dis gust with CH. 7. ing there was something monstrous in the position of a person professing to be a judge, who November. admitted that a cause which lay before him was so clear that he could bind himself to a sentence upon it, and could yet refuse to pronounce that sentence, except upon conditions. It was scarcely for the interests of justice to leave the distribution of it in hands so questionable. Clement. He refuses. Instead, therefore, of coming forward, as Francis hoped, instead of consenting to entangle himself again in the meshes of diplomatic intrigue, the king returned a courteous but peremptory refusal. How well disposed he had been to the pope, the English sovereign said, his reign from its commencement had proved. As matters stood, he would make no conditions. It would redound much to the pope's dishonour if he should seem to pact and covenant for the administration of that thing which in his conscience he had adjudged It was not to be rightful. It was not to be doubted that if he had determined to give sentence for the nullity honour to of the first marriage, he had established in his own conscience a firm persuasion that he ought to do so; and, therefore, surely he should do his duty, simpliciter et gratis, without worldly respects, or for the preservation of his pretenced power and authority.' to the pope's pact and covenant for justice. 'To see the pope have this opinion, indeed,' Henry continued, and yet refuse to [give judgment in our behalf], unless we shall be content for his benefit and pleasure, cedere juri suo, and to do some things prejudicial to our subjects, and A.D. 1533. Nor should so prosti. contrary to our honour; it is easy to be foreseen CH. 7. what the world and posterity shall judge of so base a prostitution of justice. As for our part, November. if we shall not attain justice now at the mediation justice be of our good brother, knowing the pope to be of tuted. this disposition and determination in his heart to satisfy all our desires, being moved thereunto by justice; and that the let thereof is no default of justice in the cause, but only for that we will not condescend to his request; it is to us matter sufficient enough for the discharge of our conscience to God and to the world, although he never did execute indeed his said determination. For since his corrupt affection is the only impediment thereof, what need either we to require him any further to do in the cause, or else our subjects to doubt any further in the justness of the same?'* Henry had taken his position and was determined it seemed to abide the consequences. At the moment of sending this reply he was beginning to learn what those consequences might be. He had foreseen for more than a year the possibility of an attempted invasion; and since his marriage, he had been aware that the chances of success in the adventure had been discussed on the Continent by the papal and imperial party. The pope had spoken of his censures being enforced, and Francis had revealed to Henry the nature of the dangerous overtures which had been made to himself. The Lutheran princes had hurriedly declined to connect themselves in any *FOXE, vol. v. p. 110. A.D. 1533. CH. 7. kind of alliance with England; and on the 25th of September, Stephen Vaughan had reported November. that troops were being raised in Germany, which rumour destined for Catherine's service.* Ireland, too, as we shall hear in the next chapter, was on the verge of an insurrection, which had been fomented by papal agents. The conditions under which invasion dangerous. tranquil lity of England. Nevertheless, there was no real danger from an invasion, unless it was accompanied with an insurrection at home, or with a simultaneous might be attack from Scotland; and while of the first there appeared upon the surface no probability, with Scotland a truce for a year had been concluded Apparent on the 1st of October.† The government, therefore, felt themselves reasonably secure. Parliament was unanimous; the clergy were submissive; the nation acquiescent or openly approving; and as late as the beginning of November, 1533, no suspicion seems to have been entertained of the spread of serious disaffection. A great internal revolution had been accomplished; a conflict of centuries between the civil and spiritual powers had been terminated, without a life lost or a blow struck. Partial murmurs there had been, but murmurs were inevitable, and, so far as the government yet knew, were harmless. The Scotch war had threatened to be dangerous, but it had been extinguished. Impatient monks had denounced I hear of a number of in their foolish manner: Vaughan Gelders which be lately reared; to Cromwell: State Papers, and the opinion of the people vol. vii. p. 511. here is that they shall go into England. All men there speak evil of England, and threaten it 189. RYMER, vol. vi. part 2, P. A.D. 1533. the king from the pulpits, and disloyal language CH. 7. had been reported from other quarters, which had roused vigilance, but had not created alarm. The November. Nun of Kent had forced herself into the royal presence with menacing prophecies; but she had appeared to be a harmless dreamer, who could only be made of importance by punishment. The surface of the nation was in profound repose. Cromwell, like Walsingham after him, may perhaps have known of the fire which was smouldering below, and have watched it silently till the moment came at which to trample it out; but no symptom of uneasiness appears either in the conduct of the government or in the official correspondence. The organization of the friars, the secret communication of the Nun with Catherine and the Princess Mary, with the papal nuncio, or with noble lords and reverend bishops, was either unknown, or the character of those communications was not suspected. That a The Nun serious political conspiracy should have shaped conspiracy. itself round the ravings of a seeming lunatic, to all appearance had not occurred as a possibility to a single member of the council, except to those whose silence was ensured by their complicity. of Kent's occasion of So far as we are able to trace the story (for The first the links of the chain which led to the discovery suspicion. of the designs which were entertained, are something imperfect), the suspicions of the government were first roused in the following manner: Queen Catherine, as we have already seen, |