done by us to impair the same, and to put our issue either in peril of bastardy, or otherwise disturb that [which] is by the whole agreement of our realm established for their and our commodity, wealth, and benefit. And in this determination ye know us to be so fixed, and the contrary hereof to be so infeasible, either at our hands, or by the consent of the realm, that ye must needs despair of any order to be taken by the French King with the Pope. For if any were by him taken wherein any of these four pieces should be touched— that is to say, the marriage of the Queen our wife, the revocation of the Bishop of Canterbury's sentence, the statute of our realm, or our late proclamation, which be as it were one-and as walls, covering, and foundation make a house, so they knit together, establish, and make one matter-ye be well assured, and be so ascertained from us, that in no wise we will relent, but will, as we have before written, withstand the same. Whereof ye may say that ye have thought good to advertise him, to the intent he make no further promise to the Pope therein than may be performed.'

The ambassadors were the more emphatically to insist on the King's resolution, lest Francis, in his desire for conciliation, might hold out hopes to the Pope which could not be realized. They were to say, however, that the King of England still trusted that the interview would not take place. The See of Rome was asserting a jurisdiction which, if conceded, would encourage an unlimited usurpation. If princes might be cited to the Papal courts in a cause of matrimony, they might

be cited equally in other causes at the Pope's pleasure; and the free kingdoms of Europe would be converted into dependent provinces of the See of Rome. It concerned alike the interest and the honour of all sovereigns to resist encroachments which pointed to such an issue; and, therefore, Henry said he hoped that his good brother would use the Pope as he had deserved, 'doing him to understand his folly, and [that] unless he had first made amends, he could not find in his heart to have further amity with him.'

If notwithstanding, the instructions concluded, ‘all these persuasions cannot have place to let the said meeting, and the French King shall say it is expedient for him to have in his hands the duchess,1 under pretence of marriage for his son, which he cannot obtain but by this means, ye shall say that ye remember ye heard him say once he would never conclude that marriage but to do us good, which is now infaisible; and now in the voice of the world shall do us both more hurt in the diminution of the reputation of our amity than it should do otherwise profit. Nevertheless, [if] ye cannot let his precise determination, [ye] can but lament Aug. 8. and bewail your own chance to depart home in this sort; and that yet of the two inconvenients, it is to you more tolerable to return to us nothing done, than to be present at the interview and to be compelled to look patiently upon your master's enemy.'

After having entered thus their protest against the

1 Catherine de Medici.

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French King's conduct, the embassy was to return to England, leaving a parting intimation of the single condition under which Henry would consent to treat. If the Pope would declare that 'the matrimony with the Lady Catherine was and is nought, he should do somewhat not to be refused;' except with this preliminary, no offer whatever could be entertained.1

This communication, as Henry anticipated, was not more effectual than the former in respect of its immediate object. At the meeting of Calais the interests of Francis had united him with England, and in pursuing the objects of Henry he was then pursuing his own. The Pope and the Emperor had dissolved the coalition by concessions on the least dangerous side. The interests of Francis lay now in the other direction, and there are few instances in history in which Governments have adhered to obligations against their advantage from a spirit of honour, when the purposes with which they contracted those obligations have been otherwise obtained. The English envoys returned as they were ordered; the French Court pursued their way to Marseilles; not quarrelling with England; intending to abide by the alliance, and to give all proofs of amity which did not involve inconvenient sacrifices; but producing on the world at large by their conduct the precise effect which Henry had foretold. The world at large, looking at acts rather than to words, regarded the interview as a contrivance to reconcile Francis and the Emperor

1 Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 493.

through the intervention of the Pope, as a preliminary for a packed council, and for a holy war against the Lutherans1-a combination of ominous augury to Christendom, from the consequences of which, if Germany was to be the first sufferer, England would be inevitably the second.

Meanwhile, as the French alliance threatened to fail, the English Government found themselves driven at last to look for a connection among those powers from whom they had hitherto most anxiously disconnected themselves. At such a time Protestant Germany, not CathoSept. 6. lic France, was England's natural friend. The Reformation was essentially a Teutonic movement; the Germans, the English, the Scotch, the Swedes, the Hollanders, all were struggling on their various roads towards an end essentially the same. The same dangers threatened them, the same inspiration moved them; and in the eyes of the orthodox Catholics they were united in a black communion of heresy. Unhappily, though this identity was obvious to their enemies, it was far from obvious to themselves. The odium theo

'Sir John Hacket, writing from | able to reform and set good order Ghent on the 6th of September, in the rest of Christendom. But describes as the general impression whether his Unhappiness's—I mean that the Pope's 'trust was to assure his Holiness's-intention is set for his alliance on both sides.' 'He the welfare and utility of Christrusts to bring about that his Ma- tendom, or for his own insincerity jesty the French King and he shall and singular purpose, I remit that become and remain in good, fast, and to God and to them that know more sure alliance together; and so en- of the world than I do.'-Hacket suring that they three (the Pope, to Cromwell: State Papers, vol. vii. Francis, and Charles V.) shall be

p. 506.

logicum is ever hotter between sections of the same party which are divided by trifling differences, than between the open representatives of antagonist principles; and Anglicans and Lutherans, instead of joining hands across the Channel, endeavoured only to secure each a recognition of themselves at the expense of the other. The English plumed themselves on their orthodoxy. They were not as those publicans,' heretics, despisers of the keys, disobedient to authority; they desired only the independence of their National Church, and they proved their zeal for the established faith with all the warmth of persecution. To the Germans national freedom was of wholly minor moment, in comparison with the freedom of the soul; the orthodoxy of England was as distasteful to the disciples of Luther as the orthodoxy of Rome-and the interests of Europe were sacrificed on both sides to this foolish and fatal disunion. Circumstances indeed would not permit the division to remain in its first intensity, and their common danger compelled the two nations into a partial understanding. Yet the reconciliation, imperfect to the last, was at the outset all but impossible. Their relations were already embittered by many reciprocal acts of hostility. Henry VIII. had won his spurs as a theologian by an attack on Luther. Luther had replied by a hailstorm of invectives. The Lutheran books had been proscribed, the Lutherans themselves had been burnt by Henry's bishops. The Protestant divines in Germany had attempted to conciliate the Emperor by supporting the cause of Catherine; and Luther himself had spoken