expect Justice there so she went out of the Court and would never return to it any more Upon this the King gave her a great Character for her extraordinary Qualities and protested he was acted by no other Principle then that of Conscience He added that Wolsey did not set him on to this Suit but had opposed it long that he first moved the matter in Confession to the Bishop of Lincoln and had desired the Archbishop of Canterbury to procure him the Resolution of the Bishops of England in his Case and that they had all under their hands declared that his Marriage was unlawful The Bishop of Rochester denied he had signed it but Warham pretended he gave him leave to make another write his Name to it Fisher denied this and it was no way probable The Legates went on according to the forms of Law The Queen appeals to the Pope tho the Queen appealed from them to the Pope and excepted both to the Place to the Judges and her Lawyers Yet they pronounced her Contumax and went on to Examine Witnesses chiefly to that particular of the Consummation of her Marriage with Prince Arthur But now since the Process was thus going on the Emperours Agents prest the Pope vehemently for an Avocation and all possible endeavours were used by the King's Agents to hinder it they spared nothing that would work on the Pope either in the way of perswasion or threatning It was told him that there was a Treaty set on foot between the King and the Lutheran Princes of Germany and that upon the Pope's declaring himself so partial as to grant the Avocation he would certainly imbark in the same Interrests with them But the Pope thought the King was so far ingaged in Honour in the Points of Religion that he would not be prevailed with to unite with Luther's Followers So he did not imagine that the Effects of his granting the Avocation would be so dismal as the Cardinal's creatures represented them He thought it would probably ruine him which might make his Agents use such Threatnings and he did not much consider that for he hated him in his heart So in Conclusion after the Emperour had engaged to him to restore his Family to the Government of Florence he resolved to publish his Treaty with him But that the granting the Avocation might not look like what indeed it was a secret Article he resolved to begin with that and with great signs of sorrow he told the English Embassadours that he was forced to it both because all the Lawyers told him it could not be denied and that he could not resist the Emperours Forces which surrounded him on all hands Their endeavours to gain a little time by delayes were as fruitless as their other Arts had been for on the 15th of July The Pope grants an Avocation the Pope signed it and on the 19th he sent it by an express Messenger to England The Legates Campegio in particular drew out the matter by all the delayes they could contrive and gained much time At last it being brought to that that Sentence was to be pronounced Campegio instead of doing it adjourned the Court till October and said that they being a part of the Consistory must observe their times of Vacation This gave the King and all his Court great offence when they saw what was like to be the Issue of a Process on which the King was so much bent and in which he was so far engaged both in Honour and Interest Campegio had nothing to lose in England but the Bishoprick of Sailisbury for which the Pope or Emperour could easily recompence him but Wolsey was under all the Terrours that an Insolent Favorite is liable to upon a change in his Fortune None being more abject in misfortune than those that are lifted up with Success When the Avocation was brought to England the King was willing that the Legates should declare their Commission void but would not suffer the Letters Citatory to be served for he looked upon it as below his Dignity to be cited to appear at Rome The King governed himself upon this occasion with more temper than was expected He dismissed Campegio civily only his Officers searched his Coffers when he went beyond Sea with design as was thought to see if the Decretal Bull could be found Wolsey was now upon the point of being disgraced tho the King seemed to treat him with the same Confidence he had formerly put in him it being ordinary for many Princes to hide their designs of disgracing their Favourites with higher Expressions of kindnesses than ordinary till their Ruine breaks out the more violently because it is not foreseen At this time Cranmer's Rise Dr. Cranmer a Fellow of Jesus-Colledge in Cambridge meeting accidentally with Gardiner and Fox at Waltham and being put on the Discourse of the King's Marriage proposed a new Method which was That the King should engage the chief Universities and Divines of Europe to examine the lawfulness of his Marriage and if they gave their Resolutions against it then it being certain that the Pope's Dispensation could not derogate from the Law of God the Marriage must be declared null This was new and seemed reasonable so they proposed it to the King who was much taken with it and said he had the Sow by the right Ear He saw this way was both better in it self and would mortify the Pope extreamly so Cranmer was sent for and did so behave himself that the King conceived an high opinion both of his Learning and Prudence and of his Probity and Sincerity which took such root in the King's mind that no Artifices nor Calumnies were ever able to remove it But as he was thus in his Rise Wolsey it disgraced so Wolsey did now decline The Great Seal was taken from him and given to Sir Thomas Moor And he was sued in a Premunire for having held the Legatine Courts by a Forraign Authority contrary the Laws of England He confessed the Indictment and pleaded Ignorance and submitted himself to the King's Mercy so Judgment passed on him Then was his rich Palace now Whitehall and Royal Furniture seized on to the King's use Yet the King received him again into his Protection and restored to him the Temporalities of the Sees of York and Winchester and above 6000 l. in Plate and other Goods And there appeared still great and clear Prints in the King's mind of that entire Confidence to which he had received him of which as his Enemies were very apprehensive so he himself was so much transported with the Messages he had concerning it that once he fell down on his knees in a Kennel before them that brought them Articles were put in against him in the House of Lords it seems for a Bill of Attainder where he had but few Friends which all insolent Favourites may expect in their Disgrace In the House of Commons Cromwel that had been his Secretary did so
unlawful in it self The Sorbon declares against the Marriage At Paris the Sorbon made their Determination with great Solemnity after a Mass of the Holy Ghost all the Doctors took an Oath to study the Question and to give their Judgment according to their Consciences and after three Weeks study the greater part agreed in this That the King's Marriage was unlawful and that the Pope could not dispense with it At Orleans Angiers and Tholouse they determined to the same purpose Erasmus had a mind to live in quiet and so he would not give his Opinion nor offend either party Grineus was implored to try what Bucer Zuinglius and Oecolampadius thought of the Marriage Bucer's Opinion was The Opinion of the Reformed Divines about it that the Laws in Leviticus did not bind and were not moral Because God not only dispensed but commanded them to marry their Brother's Wife when he died without Issue Zuinglius and Oecolampadius were of another mind and thought these Laws were moral But were of Opinion that the Issue by a Marriage de facto grounded upon a received Mistake ought not to be Illegitimated Calvin thought the Marriage was null and they all agreed that the Pope's Dispensation was of no force Osiander was imploied to engage the Lutheran Divines but they were affraid of giving the Emperour new grounds of displeasure Melanctthon thought the Law in Leviticus was dispensable and that the Marriage might be lawful and that in those matters States and Princes might make what Laws they pleased And though the Divines of Leipsick after much disputing about it did agree that these Laws were moral yet they could never be brought to justify the Divorce with the subsequent Marriage that followed upon it even after it was done and that the King appeared very inclinable to receive their Doctrine So steadily did they follow their Consciences even against their Interests But the Pope was more compliant for he offered to Cassali to grant the King a Dispensation for having another Wife with which the Imperialists seemed not disatisfied The King's Cause being thus fortified Many of the Nobility write to the Pope by so many Resolutions in his Favours he made many members of Parliament in a Prorogation time sign a Letter to the Pope complaining that notwithstanding the great merits of the King the Justice of his Cause and the Importance of it to the safety of the Kingdom yet the Pope made still new Delayes they therefore pressed him to dispatch it speedily otherwise they would be forced to see for other Remedies tho they were not willing to drive things to Extremities till it was unavoidable The Letter was signed by the Cardinal the Archbishop of Canterbury four other Bishops 22 Abbots 42 Peers and 11 Commoners To this the Pope wrote an answer The Pope's Answer He took notice of the Vehemence of their Stile He freed himself from the Imputations of Ingratitude and Injustice He acknowledged the King's great Merits and said he had done all he could in his Favour He had granted a Commission but could not refuse to receive the Queen's Appeal all the Cardinals with one consent judged that an Avocation was necessary Since that time the delays lay not at his door but at the Kings that he was ready to proceed and would bring it to as speedy an Issue as the Importance of it would admit of and for their Threatnings they were neither agreeable to their Wisdom nor their Religion Things being now in such a Posture November the King set out a Proclamation against any that should purchase bring over or publish any Bull from Rome contrary to his Authority and after that he made an Abstract of all the Reasons and Authorities of Fathers or modern Writers against his Marriage to be published both in Latin and English The main stress was laid on the Laws in Leviticus The Arguments for the Divorce of the forbidden Degrees of Marriage among which this was one not to marry the Brother's Wife These Marriages are called Abominations that defile the Land and for which the Canaanites were cast out of it The Exposition of Scripture was to be taken from the Tradition of the Church and by the Universal Consent of all Doctors those Laws had been still looked on as Moral and ever binding to Christians as well as Jews Therefore Gregory the Great advised Austin the Monk upon the Conversion of the English among whom the Marriages of the Brother's Wife were usual to dissolve them looking on them as grievous Sins Many other Popes as Calixtus Zacharias and Innocent the Third had given their Judgments for the perpetual Obligation of those Laws They had been also condemned by the Councils of Neocesarea Agde and the second of Toledo Among Wickliff's condemned Opinions this was one that the Prohibitions of marrying in such degrees were not founded on the Law of God For which he was condemned in some English Councils and these were confirmed by the General Council at Constance Among the Greek Fathers both Origen Basil Chrysostom and Hesychius and among the Latins Tertullian Ambrose Jerome and St. Austine do formerly deliver this as the belief of the Church in their time that those Laws were Moral and still in force Anselm Hugo de sancto Victore Hildebert and Ivo argue very fully to the same purpose the last particularly writing concerning the King of France who had married his Brothers Wife says it was inconsistent with the Law of God with which none can dispence and that he could not be admitted to the Communion of the Church till he put her away Aquinas and all the School-men follow these Authorities and in their way of reasoning they argue fully for this Opinion and all that writ against Wickliff did also assert the Authority of those Prohibitions in particular Waldensis whose Books were approved by Pope Martin the Fifth All the Canonists did also agree with them as Johannes Andreas Panormitan and Ostiensis so that Tradition being the only sure Expounder of the Scripture the Case seemed clear They also proved that a Consent without Consummation made the Marriage compleat which being a Sacrament that which followed after in the Right of Marriage was not necessary to make it compleat as a Priest saying Mass consummates his Orders which yet were compleat without it Many Testimonies were brought to confirm this from which it was inferred that the Queen's being married to Prince Arthur tho nothing had followed upon it made her incapable of a lawful Marriage with the King And yet they shewed what violent Presumptions there were of Consummation which was all that in such Cases was sought for and this was expressed both in the Bull and Breve tho but dubiously in the one yet very positively in the other After that they examined the Validity of the Pope's Dispensation It was a received Maxime that tho the Pope had Authority to dispense with the Laws of the Church yet he could not
the English had no place beyond the Borders except Lander and Thermes the French General sat down before it and if a Peace had not come it had fallen into his hands The Protector had now no Foreign Ally to depend on but the Emperour and little was to be expected from him for he was so dissatisfied with the changes that had been made in the matters of Religion that they found his assistance was not to be trusted to At this time the Emperour brought his Son to the Netherlands that he might put him in possession of those Provinces though the secret considerations that made him do it so early in those places where the Prince was not Elective is not visible It was thought they enclined to shake off his yoke and that if the Emperour should have then died they would have put themselves under Maximilian Ferdinand's Son afterwards Emperour It was some such apprehension that moved Charles to make them swear obedience so early to his Son and settle not only many limitations on him in the matter of imposing Taxes and of not putting strangers in places of trust not governing them by a Military power but make a special provision that in case his Son should break those rules the Provinces should not be bound to obey him any longer Which was the chief ground both in Law and Conscience upon which they afterwards justified their shaking off his yoke Charles that was born in those parts had a peculiar tenderness for them and did perhaps fear that the rigid Councils of the Spaniards might prevail too much on his Son which made him so careful to secure their liberties a rare instance of a Princes love for his people by which he took such care of their rights as to make their tye of obedience to his Son to depend on his maintaining them inviolably The Princes of Germany were now at the Emperours mercy and saw no way to recover their liberty but by the help of the French King So there were applications made to him which he cheerfully entertained only he was resolved first to make himself master of Bulloigne and then to turn his whole force towards Germany Advertisements were given of this to the Protector upon which he entred into a deep consultation with his Friends what was fit to be done in so critical a conjuncture whether it was better to deliver up Bulloigne to the French by a Treaty or to engage in a War to preserve it which being on the French side would prove a much more chargeable War to the English than to the French and this was of very dangerous consequence when affairs were in so unsetled a condition at home ill success which was like to be the event of such a War would turn on him that had the chief administration of affairs so both regard to the publick and to the establishing his private fortune which could not be done in time of War without drawing much envy on him inclined him to deliver up Bulloigne But his Enemies saw that the continuance of the War was like to ruine him whereas a General Peace would put the Nation wholly in his hands and therefore they who were the majority in the Council set themselves against all motions for a Treaty and said it would be a lasting reproach on the Government if such a place as Bulloigne were sold Paget gave his opinion in Writing Several expedients proposed in which after he had with great Judgement ballanced the affairs of Europe he concluded that the restoring the liberty of Germany and the bearing down the Emperours greatness was at present to be preferred to all other things and that could not be done without a conjunction with France and that was to be pursued by the mediation of the Venetians Thomas a Clerk of the Council and much imployed in foreign affairs was of another mind He thought it was very dishonourable to deliver up the late Conquests in France therefore he proposed their casting themselves on the Emperour that so some time might be gained They knew the Emperour would not be hearty unless they would promise to return to the Roman Religion but he thought that was to be done in such an extremity of affairs and when the present difficulty was over they might turn to other Councils There was great danger in this it would very much dishearten the few Towns that refused to bear the Emperours yoke in Germany and it would provoke the Emperour more against them afterwards if he should find that he had been deceived by them he also proposed that in order to the imbroiling of Scotland some should be imployed to perswade the Governour to aspire to the Crown and that he should be assured of the assistance of England for this would separate that Nation from the Interests of France The issue of these Consultations The Emperor refuses his assistance was first the sending over Paget to the Emperor to try what might be expected from him His publick Instructions were to obtain an explanation of some ambiguous words in the former Treaty and a ratification of it by Prince Philip and to adjust some differences in the matter of Trade but his secret Instructions were to see if the Emperor would include Bulloign in the League defensive and so protect it or if that could not be obtained he was ordered to try whether the Emperour would take Bulloign into his hands and what recompence he would give for it but this he was ordered to propose as a motion of his own The Emperour shifted him off for some time by delays and pretended that the carrying his Son about from Town to Town making them swear obedience took him up so that till that was over he could not receive his Propositions But the Progress of the French about Bulloign made Paget impatient so the Bishop of Arras and the Emperour 's other Ministers were appointed to treat with him They at first treated of some differences between the Courts of Admiralty of both sides and proposed some Expedients for adjusting them for the Confirmation of the Treaty it was offered that the Prince should do it but Paget moved likewise that it might be confirmed by the States It was answered that the Emperor would never sue to his Subjects to confirm his Treaties he had fifteen or sixteen Parliaments and would be in a very uneasie condition if all these must know the secrets of his Negotiations But since the King of England was under Age it was more reasonable for them to demand a ratification from his Parliament Paget answered the King's power was the same at all Ages and a ratification under the Great Seal did oblige him as much as if he had made the Treaty himself and objected that their last Treaty with France was ratified by the Assembly of the States To this they answered that the Prerogative of the Kings of France was so limited that they could not alienate any thing which belonged to the Crown