Henry declared the latter to be a
forgery, and endeavoured unsuccessfully to procure a declaration of its
falsity from the pope. The court of the legates accordingly opened on
the 31st of May 1529, the queen appearing before it on the 18th of June
for the purpose of denying its jurisdiction. On the 21st both Henry and
Catherine presented themselves before the tribunal, when the queen threw
herself at Henry's feet and appealed for the last time to his sense of
honour, recalling her own virtue and helplessness. Henry replied with
kindness, showing that her wish for the revocation of the cause to Rome
was unreasonable in view of the paramount influence then exercised by
Charles V. on the pope. Catherine nevertheless persisted in making
appeal to Rome, and then withdrew. After her departure Henry, according
to Cavendish, Wolsey's biographer, praised her virtues to the court.
"She is, my lords, as true, as obedient, as conformable a wife as I
could in my phantasy wish or desire. She hath all the virtues and
qualities that ought to be in a woman of her dignity or in any other of
baser estate." On her refusal to return, her plea was overruled and she
was adjudged contumacious, while the sittings of the court continued in
her absence. Subsequently the legates paid her a private visit of
advice, but were unable to move her from her resolution. Finally,
however, in July 1529, the case was, according to her wish, and as the
result of the treaty of Barcelona and the pope's complete surrender to
Charles V., revoked by the pope to Rome: a momentous act, which decided
Henry's future attitude, and occasioned the downfall of the whole papal
authority in England. On the 7th of March 1530 Pope Clement issued a
brief forbidding Henry to make a second marriage, and ordering the
restitution of Catherine to her rights till the cause was determined;
while at the same time he professed to the French ambassador, the bishop
of Tarbes, his pleasure should the marriage with Anne Boleyn have been
already made, if only it were not by his authority.[5] The same year
Henry obtained opinions favourable to the divorce from the English,
French and most of the Italian universities, but unfavourable answers
from Germany, while a large number of English peers and ecclesiastics,
including Wolsey and Archbishop Warham, joined in a memorial to the pope
in support of Henry's cause.

Meanwhile, Catherine, while the great question remained unsolved, was
still trea