Guienne, kings-at-arms, defied Charles in the name of their respective sovereigns. Charles made a dignified and fitting reply, in which he had evidently by far the best of it. To Guienne, the French king-at-arms, he observed that his message was superfluous, as he and his master had long been at war; but to Clarenceaux he justified his conduct at length. In reply to the demands of the money which he had borrowed of Henry, he acknowledged the debt, and pledged himself to discharge it in due time and manner. As to those of Francis, which he had engaged to pay on the former declaration of war against him by himself and Henry, he said they were no longer due from him, as Francis had again taken their obligation upon himself, both in the Treaty of Madrid and the recent Treaty of London. To the alleged breach of promise of marriage to Mary of England, and the consequent amount of penalty, he denied the obligation; Henry having refused to allow of the solemnisation of the marriage when demanded, and had, moreover, consented to his marriage with Isabella. "God grant," he continued, "that I may not have better reason to defy him than he has to defy me. Can I pass over the injury with which he threatens my aunt, by his application for a divorce? or the insult which he has offered to me, by soliciting me to marry a daughter whom he now pronounces a bastard? But I am perfectly aware from whom these suggestions proceed. I would not satisfy the rapacity of the Cardinal of York, nor employ my forces to seat him in the chair of St. Peter; and he, in return, has sworn to be revenged, and now seeks to fulfil his purpose. But if war ensue, let the blood that must be shed rest where it ought, on the head of him who was the original instigator of it."
The news of the war with the emperor was received in England with the utmost disgust and discontent. The people denounced the cardinal as the troubler of the kingdom and the interrupter of its commerce. The merchants refused to frequent the new marts in France which were appointed, instead of their accustomed ones in the Netherlands. The wool-combers, spinners, and clothiers were stopped in their sales by this resolve on the part of the merchants; their people were all thrown out of work; and the spirit of commotion grew so strong, that there were serious fears of open outbreaks. In the cabinet, the cardinal had as little support in his policy as out of doors. There was not a member, except himself, who was an advocate of the French alliance; but all his colleagues at the council-table were eagerly watching for some chance which should hasten his downfall. Even the king himself was averse to the war with his nephew, the emperor; and especially as he was aware that the fear of Charles's resentment deterred Clement from cordially proceeding with the divorce; and Henry hinted that if peace were restored, Charles might be induced to withdraw his opposition. Fortunately, the Flemings were as much incommoded by the breach of commercial relations as the English; and the Archduchess Margaret, the Governess of the Netherlands, had the prudence to make a proposition that peace should be restored. Negotiations commenced, and were carried on for some time for a general pacification; but this being proved unattainable, a peace was concluded with the Netherlands, and the war was allowed to remain betwixt England and Spain.
But the fact was, the war, so far as it regarded those two countries, was merely nominal; it raged only in Italy, betwixt the French and the Imperialists. Henry had no money for war, and, besides, all his thoughts and energies were occupied in carrying through the divorce, which he now found a most formidable affair, fresh difficulties starting up at every step. Had Catherine been only an English subject, instead of the aunt of the great monarch of Germany, Flanders, and Spain, Henry would have made short work of it with his conscience, and the poor woman who was in the way. He would have charged her with some heinous and revolting crime, and severed her head from her shoulders at a blow, and all his difficulties with it. But he had not only royal blood to deal with, but all the ancient prejudices that surrounded it, and which would have made him execrated over the whole world, had he spilled it. He knew that Charles was watching intently to catch him at advantage, and he never felt himself safe in his proceedings.
It now occurred to him that, though the Pope had granted permission for Wolsey and the legate to decide this momentous question, yet he might be induced, by the influence of Charles, to revise and revert the sentence pronounced by his delegates: and this might involve him in the most inextricable dilemmas, especially should he have acted on the sentence of divorce, and married again. Once more, therefore, he dispatched Gardiner and Fox to Italy, in quest of more certain and irrevocable powers. They were to proceed to Venice, and there demand, in the names of the French and English kings, the consent of Francis being first obtained, the restoration of Ravenna and Cervia to the Roman state, a restoration for which Clement was extremely anxious. We are not told whether the Venetians were likely to make this sacrifice, or of any compensation to be made them; but the envoys were then to proceed to Orvieto, and calling the brothers Gregorio and Vincenzo da Casali to their aid, they were to demand from Clement, in gratitude for this promised favour, his signature to two especial instruments, which the envoys had brought with them from England. The first of these instruments was a dispensation of the same tenor as the former one, but more complete; the second was called a decretal bull, by which the Pope was to pledge himself to confirm the sentence pronounced by Wolsey and the legate; and, moreover, was to declare that the prohibition of marriage within certain degrees of affinity in Leviticus was a part of the Divine law, admitting of no exception or dispensation, notwithstanding the permission in Deuteronomy.
Clement was placed in a very trying situation. He was anxious to oblige Henry, anxious to secure Ravenna and Cervia; but to grant that bull was to annihilate the dogma of the Church's infallibility, for Julius II. had granted that dispensation, notwithstanding the fact of Catherine's union with Henry's brother. He had been also informed that Henry's object was only to gratify the wish of a woman who was already living in adultery with him. But this was rebutted by a letter already received from Wolsey, assuring the Pope that Anne Boleyn was a lady of unimpeachable character. Driven from this point, Clement still demurred as to the for-
