In two days, however, they managed to procure some new clothing; and being now in a condition to show themselves, Henry's agents were admitted to an after-dinner audience on Monday the 22nd of March (1528).

Da Casale conducted them to an old building in ruins. "This is where his holiness lives," he said. They looked at one another with astonishment, and crossing the rubbish lying about, pa.s.sed through three chambers whose ceilings had fallen in, whose windows were curtainless, and in which thirty persons "_riff-raff_ were standing against the bare walls for a garnishment."[767] This was the pope's court.

[767] Strype, i. p. 139.

At length the amba.s.sadors reached the pontiff's room, and placed Henry's letters in his hands. "Your holiness," said Gardiner, "when sending the king a dispensation, was pleased to add, that if this doc.u.ment were not sufficient, you would willingly give a better. It is that favour the king now desires." The pope with embarra.s.sment strove to soften his refusal. "I am informed," he said, "that the king is led on in this affair by a secret inclination, and that the lady he loves is far from being worthy of him." Gardiner replied with firmness: "The king truly deserves to marry again after the divorce, that he may have an heir to the crown; but the woman he proposes to take is animated by the n.o.blest sentiments; the cardinal of York and all England do homage to her virtues."[768] The pope appeared convinced. "Besides,"

continued Gardiner, "the king has written a book on the motives of his divorce."--"Good! come and read it to me to-morrow," rejoined Clement.

[768] The cardinal's judgment as to the good qualities of the gentlewoman. Ibid. p. 141.

[Sidenote: SECOND AUDIENCE.]

The next day the English envoys had hardly appeared, before Clement took Henry's book, ran over it as he walked up and down the room, and then seating himself on a long bench covered with an old carpet, "not worth twenty pence," says an annalist, he read the book aloud. He counted the number of arguments, made objections as if Henry were present, and piled them one upon another without waiting for an answer. "The marriages forbidden in Leviticus," said he, in a short and quick tone of voice, "are permitted in Deuteronomy; now Deuteronomy coming after Leviticus, we are bound by the latter. The honour of Catherine and the emperor is at stake, and the divorce would give rise to a terrible war."[769] The pope continued speaking, and whenever the Englishmen attempted to reply, he bade them be silent, and kept on reading. "It is an excellent book," said he, however, in a courteous tone, when he had ended; "I shall keep it to read over again at my leisure." Gardiner then presenting a draft of the commission which Henry required, Clement made answer: "It is too late to look at it now; leave it with me."--"But we are in haste," added Gardiner.--"Yes, yes, I know it," said the pope. All his efforts tended to protract the business.

[769] Quis praestabit ne hoc divortium magni alicujus belli causam praebeat. Sanderus, p. 26.

On the 28th of March, the amba.s.sadors were conducted to the room in which the pope slept; the cardinals Sanctorum Quatuor and De Monte, as well as the councillor of the Rota, Simonetta, were then with him.

Chairs were arranged in a semicircle. "Be seated," said Clement, who stood in the middle.[770] "Master Gardiner, now tell me what you want."--"There is no question between us but one of _time_. You promised to ratify the divorce, as soon as it was p.r.o.nounced; and we require you to do _before_ what you engage to do _after_. What is right on one day, must be right on another." Then, raising his voice, the Englishman added: "If his majesty perceives that no more respect is paid to him than to a common man,[771] he will have recourse to a _remedy_ which I will not name, but which will not fail in its effect."

[770] In medio semicirculi. Strype, Records, i, p. 81.

[771] Promiscuae plebis. Ibid. p. 82.

[Sidenote: THE TEMPORIZER.]

The pope and his councillors looked at one another in silence;[772]

they had understood him. The imperious Gardiner, remarking the effect which he had produced, then added in an absolute tone: "We have our instructions, and are determined to keep to them."--"I am ready to do everything compatible with my honour," exclaimed Clement, in alarm.--"What your honour would not permit you to grant," said the proud amba.s.sador, "the honour of the king, my master, would not permit him to ask." Gardiner's language became more imperative every minute.

"Well, then," said Clement, driven to extremity, "I will do what the king demands, and if the emperor is angry, I cannot help it." The interview, which had commenced with a storm, finished with a gleam of sunshine.

[772] Every man looked on other and so stayed. Ibid.

That bright gleam soon disappeared: Clement, who imagined he saw in Henry a Hannibal at war with Rome, wished to play the temporizer, the _Fabius Cunctator_. "_Bis dat qui cito dat_,"[773] said Gardiner sharply, who observed this manuvre.--"It is a question of law,"

replied the pope, "and as I am very ignorant in these matters, I must give the doctors of the canon law the necessary time to make it all clear."--"By his delays Fabius Maximus saved Rome," rejoined Gardiner; "you will destroy it by yours."[774]--"Alas!" exclaimed the pope, "if I say the king is right, I shall have to go back to prison."[775]-- "When truth is concerned," said the amba.s.sador, "of what consequence are the opinions of men?" Gardiner was speaking at his ease, but Clement found that the castle of St. Angelo was not without weight in the balance. "You may be sure that I shall do everything for the best," replied the modern Fabius. With these words the conference terminated.

[773] He gives twice who gives quickly.

[774] In Fabio Maximo qui rem Romanam cunctando rest.i.tuit. Strype, p.

90.

[775] Materia novae captivitatis. Ibid. p. 86.

[Sidenote: THE POPE WITHOUT THE KEY.]

Such were the struggles of England with the popedom--struggles which were to end in a definitive rupture. Gardiner knew that he had a skilful adversary to deal with; too cunning to allow himself to be irritated, he coolly resolved to frighten the pontiff: that was in his instructions. On the Friday before Palm Sunday, he was ushered into the pope's closet; there he found Clement attended by De Monte, Sanctorum Quatuor, Simonetta, Staffileo, Paul, auditor of the Rota, and Gambara. "It is impossible," said the cardinals, "to grant a decretal commission in which the pope p.r.o.nounces _de jure_ in favour of the divorce, with a promise of confirmation _de facto_." Gardiner insisted; but no persuasion, "neither dulce nor poynante,"[776] could move the pontiff. The envoy judged the moment had come to discharge his strongest battery. "O perverse race," said he to the pontiff's ministers, "instead of being harmless as doves, you are as full of dissimulation and malice as serpents; promising everything but performing nothing.[777] England will be driven to believe that G.o.d has taken from you the key of knowledge, and that the laws of the popes, ambiguous to the popes themselves, are only fit to be cast into the fire.[778] The king has. .h.i.therto restrained his people, impatient of the Romish yoke; but he will now give them the rein." A long and gloomy silence followed. Then the Englishman, suddenly changing his tone, softly approached Clement, who had left his seat, and conjured him in a low voice to consider carefully what justice required of him.

"Alas!" replied Clement, "I tell you again, I am ignorant in these matters. According to the maxims of the canon law _the pope carries all laws in the tablets of his heart_,[779] but unfortunately G.o.d has never given me _the key_ that opens them." As he could not escape by silence, Clement retreated under cover of a jest, and heedlessly p.r.o.nounced the condemnation of the popedom. If he had never received the famous _key_, there was no reason why other pontiffs should have possessed it. The next day he found another loophole; for when the amba.s.sadors told him that the king would carry on the matter without him, he sighed, drew out his handkerchief, and said as he wiped his eyes:[780] "Would to G.o.d that I were dead!" Clement employed tears as a political engine.

[776] Ibid. p. 114.

[777] Pleni omni dolo et versatione et dissimulatione. Verbis omnia pollicentur, reipsa nihil praestant. Ibid. p. 98.

[778] Digna esse quae mandentur flammis pontificia jura. Ibid.

[779] Pontifex habet omnia jura in scrinio pectoris. Strype, p. 99.

[780] Ibid. p. 100.

"We shall not get the _decretal_ commission," (that which p.r.o.nounced the divorce) said Fox and Gardiner after this, "and it is not really necessary. Let us demand the _general_ commission (authorizing the legates to p.r.o.nounce it), and exact a promise that shall supply the place of the act which is denied us." Clement, who was ready to make all the promises in the world, swore to ratify the sentence of the legates without delay. Fox and Gardiner then presented to Simonetta a draft of the act required. The dean, after reading it, returned it to the envoys, saying, "It is very well, I think, except _the end_;[781]

show it Sanctorum Quatuor." The next morning they carried the draft to that cardinal: "How long has it been the rule for the patient to write the prescription? I always thought it was the physician's business."--"No one knows the disease so well as the patient," replied Gardiner; "and this disease may be of such a nature that the doctor cannot prescribe the remedy without taking the patient's advice."

Sanctorum Quatuor read the prescription, and then returned it, saying: "It is not bad, with the exception of _the beginning_.[782] Take the draft to De Monte and the other councillors." The latter liked neither beginning, middle, nor end. "We will send for you this evening," said De Monte.

[781] The matter was good saving in the latter end. Ibid. p. 102.

[782] The beginning pleased him not.

[Sidenote: A NEW TRAGEDY.]

Three or four days having elapsed, Henry's envoys again waited on the pope, who showed them the draft prepared by his councillors. Gardiner remarking in it additions, retrenchments, and corrections, threw it disdainfully from him, and said coldly: "Your holiness is deceiving us; you have selected these men to be the instruments of your duplicity." Clement, in alarm, sent for Simonetta; and after a warm discussion,[783] the envoys, more discontented than ever, quitted the pope at one in the morning.

[783] Incalescente disputatione. Strype, p. 104.

The night brings wisdom. "I only desire two little words more in the commission," said Gardiner next day to Clement and Simonetta. The pope requested Simonetta to wait upon the cardinals immediately; the latter sent word that they were at dinner, and adjourned the business until the morrow.

When Gardiner heard of this Epicurean message, he thought the time had come for striking a decisive blow. A new tragedy began.[784] "We are deceived," exclaimed he, "you are laughing at us. This is not the way to gain the favour of princes. Water mixed with wine spoils it;[785]

your corrections nullify our doc.u.ment. These ignorant and suspicious priests have spelled over our draft as if a scorpion was hidden under every word.[786]--You made us come to Italy," said he to Staffileo and Gambara, "like hawks which the fowler lures by holding out to them a piece of meat;[787] and now that we are here, the bait has disappeared, and, instead of giving us what we sought, you pretend to lull us to sleep by the sweet voice of the sirens."[788] Then, turning to Clement, the English envoy added, "Your holiness will have to answer for this." The pope sighed and wiped away his tears. "It was G.o.d's pleasure," continued Gardiner, whose tone became more threatening every minute, "that we should see with our own eyes the disposition of the people here. It is time to have done. Henry is not an ordinary prince,--bear in mind that you are insulting _the defender of the faith_.... You are going to lose the favour of the only monarch who protects you, and the apostolical chair, already tottering, will fall into dust, and disappear entirely amidst the applause of all Christendom."

[784] Here began a new tragedy. Ibid. p. 105.

[785] Vinum conspurcat infusa aqua. Ibid.

[786] Putantes sub omni verbo latere scorpionem. Ibid.

[787] Praetendere pugno carnem. Ibid.

[788] Dulcibus sirenum vocibus incantare. Ibid.

[Sidenote: THE POPE'S TERROR.]

Gardiner paused. The pope was moved. The state of Italy seemed to confirm but too strongly the sinister predictions of the envoy of Henry VIII. The imperial troops, terrified and pursued by Lautrec, had abandoned Rome and retired on Naples. The French general was following up this wretched army of Charles V, decimated by pestilence and debauchery; Doria, at the head of his galleys, had destroyed the Spanish fleet; Gaeta and Naples only were left to the imperialists; and Lautrec, who was besieging the latter place, wrote to Henry on the 26th of August that all would soon be over. The timid Clement VII had attentively watched all these catastrophes. Accordingly, Gardiner had hardly denounced the danger which threatened the popedom, before he turned pale with affright, rose from his seat, stretched out his arms in terror, as if he had desired to repel some monster ready to devour him, and exclaimed, "Write, write! Insert whatever words you please."

As he said this, he paced up and down the room, raising his hands to heaven and sighing deeply, while Fox and Gardiner, standing motionless, looked on in silence. A tempestuous wind seemed to be stirring the depths of the abyss; the amba.s.sadors waited until the storm was abated. At last Clement recovered himself,[789] made a few trivial excuses, and dismissed Henry's ministers. It was an hour past midnight.

[789] Compositis affectibus. Strype, p. 106.

It was neither morality, nor religion, nor even the laws of the church which led Clement to refuse the divorce; ambition and fear were his only motives. He would have desired that Henry should first constrain the emperor to restore him his territories. But the king of England, who felt himself unable to protect the pope against Charles, required, however, this unhappy pontiff to provoke the emperor's anger. Clement reaped the fruits of that fatal system which had transformed the church of Jesus Christ into a pitiful combination of policy and cunning.

[Sidenote: THE ENGAGEMENT CONCEDED.]

On the next day, the tempest having thoroughly abated,[790] Sanctorum Quatuor corrected the commission. It was signed, completed by a leaden seal attached to a piece of string, and then handed to Gardiner, who read it. The bull was addressed to Wolsey, and "authorized him, in case he should acknowledge the nullity of Henry's marriage, to p.r.o.nounce judicially the sentence of divorce, but without noise or display of judgment;[791] for that purpose he might take any English bishop for his colleague."--"All that we can do, you can do," said the pope. "We are very doubtful," said the importunate Gardiner after reading the bull, "whether this commission, without the clauses of _confirmation_ and _revocation_, will satisfy his majesty; but we will do all in our power to get him to accept it."--"Above all, do not speak of our altercations," said the pope. Gardiner, like a discreet diplomist, did not scruple to note down every particular in cipher in the letters whence these details are procured. "Tell the king,"

continued the pontiff, "that this commission is on my part a declaration of war against the emperor, and that I now place myself under his majesty's protection." The chief-almoner of England departed for London with the precious doc.u.ment.