III CHAP circumstances of the case no evidence could be so good on this point as the word of an honourable and A.D. 1529 religious woman like Catherine; nor was the evidence of any of the witnesses of such a character as to weigh down her word even had she been otherwise. Meanwhile, the Pope received the formal appeal of The court the Queen, supported by that of the Emperor, and adjourned for the Roman vacation 8 his promises to the contrary notwithstanding—he avocated the cause before himself by a brief signed on July 15, 1529. This was not, however, received in England until August 4th, and the court was prorogued (for the vacation customary in Roman courts) on July 23d, not to sit again until October 1st. Campeg- There is some foundation for supposing that Camgio's dissimulation peggio was aware of the coming avocation of the cause all the while he was professing to hold the court, and that the whole proceeding was a device to gain time. Wolsey had thrown the responsibility of the business as much as he could on his brother legate, and seems never to have taken an active part as long as the court was sitting. He was placed in Wolsey a most painful and difficult position; for whatever sponsibil may have been his opinion respecting the matter ity of the under examination, it is certain that he was extremely averse to what he foresaw would be the termination of their sittings; and his position as a judge was extremely hampered by his position as the chief adviser and minister of the King; for Henry's ideas of justice were not of a kind that prevented him from trying to overawe his judges. Cavendish relates that "at a certain day of their session the King sent for my Lord Cardinal to come to him to avoided re case 8 Cardinal Campeggio considered himself bound to observe this custom strictly. III ed by the King Bridewell; who to accomplish his commandment CHAP went to him, and being there with him in communication in his privy chamber from eleven until twelve A.D. 1529 of the clock at noon and past, my Lord departed from the King, and took his barge at the Blackfriars, and went to his house at Westminster. The Bishop of Carlisle being in his barge at that time said unto him (winding of his face), 'It is a very hot day.' Was abus'Yea, my Lord,' quoth the Cardinal, ‘if ye had been as well chafed as I have been within this hour, ye would say it were very hot."" The same day he told Lord Wiltshire, the father of Anne Boleyn, "Ye, and other, my Lords of the Council, are not a little misadvised to put any such fantasy into the King's head, whereby you do trouble all the realm: His proand at length get you small thanks for your labours, words te phetic both of God and the world;' with many other vehe- Boleyn ment words and reasons, which caused my Lord of Wiltshire to weep." Gardiner wrote to the ambassadors at Rome on June 25th, that if the avocation was issued it would utterly ruin the Cardinal, and alienate both King and nobles from the Holy See.2 On the day of the adjournment for the vacation, the King himself was again present. Campeggio caused the records of all their proceedings to be read over, and then declared that the cause was so doubtful in itself, and had been so much further embarrassed by the defendant's contumacy, and her appeal to the Pope, that he would not act in it any further until he had consulted his Holiness; and that therefore he adjourned the further hearing, according to the custom of the "rota," or consistory of Rome, "Fanning." 1 Cavend. in Wordsw. Eccl. Biog., i. 430. Ellis' Orig. Lett., III. ii. 158. 3 CHAP until the day already mentioned. He was also careIII ful to say that he would not speak for favour or A.D. 1529 dread of any person alive, be he king or otherwise: he was an old man, both weak and sickly, looking daily for death, and he would not endanger his soul for any prince or high estate in the world. Thus ended the proceedings of this strange court, for the The court Pope's avocation of the cause put an end to its jurisfinally dis- diction. It was dissolved before the day appointed cause being for its next session had arrived, and shortly afterwards Cardinal Campeggio returned to Rome. solved, the recalled to Rome The conti nental universities From this time there was no friendly communication between Henry and the Pope on this subject. He had already threatened several times that if his case was not settled by the Pope, he would find some other way of obtaining a decision that would justify him in dissolving his union with Catherine, and seems, when making the threat, to have had in view that reference to the Universities which had been suggested two years before, and to obtain the opinions of which active measures were now taken, by sending agents first to the Continent and afterwards to Oxford and Cambridge. It would appear that the King's plan at first was to get the subscriptions of individual members of the consulted Universities to an opinion on the question, "Whether marriage with a brother's widow is forbidden by the law of God, and whether the Pope has authority 3 It is lamentable to find Burnet writing of Campeggio that "He led at this time a very dissolute life in England, hunting and gaming all the day long, and following whores all the night." [Burnet, i. 124.] On January 10, 1528, Dr. Knight had written to Wolsey the names of all the cardinals then near the Pope, and mentions first "The Cardinal Campegius continueth in Rome, sore vexed with the gout;" and in one of King Henry's letters to Anne Boleyn, he speaks of "the unfeigned sickness of this well-willing legate." Erasmus had a great respect for him. III A. D. 1529-30 opinions to give a dispensation for such a marriage." Dr. CHAP Croke, tutor to the Duke of Richmond, was sent into Italy for this purpose, being directed to obtain opinions on the question in its abstract form, without appearing to be engaged on behalf of the King. He was furnished with large sums of money, and from his correspondence (which is still preserved among and paid the MSS. of the British Museum) it appears that he for their distributed these to the persons who subscribed the opinion in a manner which cannot justly be described otherwise than as bribery. He visited Venice, Padua, Bologna, Milan, Vicenza, Naples, Ferrara, and Rome, sometimes passing under the pseudonym of Johannes Flandriensis, and incurring some danger from the suspicions which his mission excited." His success with individual divines encouraged the development of the plan into that originally suggested by Dr. Wakefield, and by the bishops; and while Croke was authorized to consult the Italian universities, other agents were sent to do the same in France and Germany, Cranmer and Dr. Barnes being of the number. first step in position Meanwhile the Pope had advanced one step fur- The Pope's ther, by issuing an inhibition, signed March 7, direct op1530, by which Henry was interdicted from marrying while his divorce from Catherine was yet under adjudication, or from associating with any woman under pretext of marriage having been celebrated 4 His name was Croke, alias Blunt, and he belonged to a branch of the same family of which the Duke of Richmond's mother was a member. He was the greatest Greek scholar of his age at Cambridge, a friend of Erasmus, and a very unprincipled man. 5 Burnet says that "In all Croke sent over by Stokesley an hundred several books, papers, and subscriptions, and there were many hands subscribed to many of these papers." III CHAP between them before the inhibition was issued. This document does not appear to have been sent A.D. 1530 officially into England, but was considered to be legally exhibited by being affixed to the doors of the cathedrals of Bruges, Tournay, and Dunkirk ; the King having issued a proclamation that no decree from Rome should be published, or even received, by any of his subjects; open hostility being thus declared on both sides. Cambridge sounded The favourable opinions of foreign divines being communicated to the King, he entertained sanguine Oxford and expectations of receiving the support of the Universities as corporate bodies. Croke had already sounded Oxford doctors on the subject, and Cranmer had done the same at Cambridge ;" and there were hopes that by judicious pressure of "influence" in some quarters, direct patronage and money payments in others, both foreign and English universities might be brought to contribute official support to the King's views. Lords and At the same time Parliament was being tuned to support the a like unison with the King's opinions, although no King direct communication had yet been made to that august assembly on the subject. On July 13, 1530, a large body of Lords and Commons were persuaded to sign, outside the walls of Parliament, the following extraordinary petition to the Pope, the signature of Wolsey (now no longer in power) appearing among the rest :8_ "To the most holy Lord, our Lord and Father in Christ, Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. ii. 197. 7 Nichol's Narr. of Reform., 242. The petition was signed by the two archbishops, four bishops, two dukes, two marquesses, thirteen earls, twenty-five barons, twentytwo abbots, with eleven commoners and divines-eighty-one in all! For the original Latin ɛee Collier, ix. 86. |