eign and Vicar of God in matters spiritual, of which matrimony was one.[1]
The Spanish Legate had succeeded no better with Charles, who returned a peremptory refusal; but so little confidence had the Emperor in the true Sovereign and Vicar of God that he insisted not merely that the Pope should try the case, but should try it in his own presence, lest the Queen's interests should suffer injury. The request itself indicated a disposition on the Pope's part to evade his duty. Charles gave him to understand, in language sufficiently peremptory, that he intended that duty to be done.[2]
In this direction there was no hope. Catherine had been even more emphatic with the deputation. After her reply to Norfolk, the bishops and lawyers took up the word. She always denied that she had been Prince Arthur's actual wife. She herself on all occasions courted the subject, and was not afraid of indelicacy. The Church doctors responded. They said she had slept with Prince Arthur, and the presumptions were against her. She bade them go plead their presumptions at Rome, where they would have others than a woman to answer them. She was astonished, she said, to see so many great people gathered against a lone lady without friends or counsel.
Among the great persons before her she had still some staunch friends. Anne Boleyn was detested by them all; and those who, like Norfolk, wished her, for her own sake, to be less uncompromising could not refuse to admire the gallant spirit of Isabella's daughter. But, alas! the refusal to allow the cause to be heard in a free city, before an impartial tribunal, was
