ing
to recent events.... If so great an injury be done to the Emperor...
the Church cannot escape utter ruin, as it is entirely in the power of
the Emperor's servants. You will not, therefore, be surprised at my
repeating that you are not to proceed to sentence, under any pretext,
without express commission; but to protract the matter as long as
possible."[608] Clement himself wrote to Charles that nothing would be
done to Catherine's detriment, that Campeggio had gone merely to urge
Henry to do his duty, and that the whole case would eventually be
referred to Rome.[609] Such were the secret instructions with which
Campeggio arrived in England in October.[610] He readily promised (p. 217)
not to proceed to sentence, but protested against the interpretation
which he put upon the Pope's command, namely, that he was not to begin
the trial. The English, he said, "would think that I had come to
hoodwink them, and might resent it. You know how much that would
involve."[611] He did not seem to realise that the refusal to pass
sentence was equally hoodwinking the English, and that the trial would
only defer the moment of their penetrating the deception; a trial was
of no use without sentence.

[Footnote 603: _Ibid._, iv., 4605.]

[Footnote 604: _L. and P._, iv., 4626.]

[Footnote 605: _Ibid._, iv., 4663.]

[Footnote 606: _Ibid._, iv., 4713.]

[Footnote 607: _Ibid._, iv., 4721.]

[Footnote 608: _Ibid._, iv., 4736-37.]

[Footnote 609: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 779.]

[Footnote 610: _L. and P._, iv., 4857.]

[Footnote 611: _Ibid._, iv., 4736.]

In accordance with his instructions, Campeggio first sought to dissuade
Henry from persisting in his suit for the divorce. Finding the King
immovable, he endeavoured to induce Catherine to go into a nunnery, as
the divorced wife of Louis XII. had done, "who still lived in the
greatest honour and reputation with God and all that kingdom".[612] He
represented to her that she had nothing to lose by such a step; she
could never regain Henry's affections or obtain restitution of her
conjugal rights. Her consent might have deferred the separation of the
English Church from Rome; it would certainly have relieved the Supreme
Pontiff from a humiliating and intolerable position. But these
considerations of expediency weighed not