he himself were raised to the Papacy. But he had now to
find that King Francis, as well as Pope Clement, was seeking a
separate peace with the Emperor. Wolsey had given Henry the strongest
assurances on this point, that such a thing would never happen, France
would never separate herself from him. But yet this now happened, and
how could any influence from that quarter on the Roman Court be still
expected in favour of England, in a matter which was so highly
offensive to the Emperor! The legates received from Rome distinct
instructions to proceed slowly, and in no case to pronounce a
decision.[102] While King Henry and those around him were eagerly
expecting it, the cardinals (using the holidays of the Roman Rota as a
pretence) announced the suspension of their proceedings.

It appeared in an instant into what a violent ebullition of wrath,
which unsettled every thing, the King fell in consequence; it seemed
as if all his past way of governing had been a mistake. In
contradiction to many of the older traditions of English history he
had hitherto ruled chiefly through ecclesiastics to the disgust of the
lay lords: now he betook himself to the latter, to complain of the
proceedings of the two cardinals. These were still in the hall where
they had sat, when Suffolk and some other lords appeared, and bade
them bring the matter to an end without delay, even if it were by a
peremptory decree, that might be issued on the next day, on which the
holidays would not have begun. But the prorogation was in fact only
the form under which the cardinals fulfilled their orders from Rome;
they could not possibly recall it. Suffolk broke out into the
exclamation that cardinals and legates had never brought good to
England. The two spiritual lords looked at each other with amazement.
Had they any feeling that his words contained a declaration of war on
the part of the lay element in the State against ecclesiastical and
foreign influences in general? Wolsey, at any rate, could not shut his
eyes to the significance of such a war. He often said that what Henry
VIII took in hand he could not be brought to give up by any
representations; he had sometimes tried it, he had fallen at his feet,
but it had been always in vain.

Henry contained himself yet a while, as hopes had been given him that
the proceedings might be resumed. But when a Breve came, by which
Clement VII recalled his Commission and evoked the question of the
divorce to Rome, he