specially in the conduct of its courts of justice, a cause should
have arisen which tested the whole question of church authority in its
highest form; where the dispute between the laity and the ecclesiastics was
represented in a process in which the pope sat as judge; in which the king
was the appellant, and the most vital interests of the nation were at stake
upon the issue. It was no accident which connected a suit for divorce with
the reformation of religion. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction was upon its
trial, and the future relations of church and state depended upon the
pope's conduct in a matter which no technical skill was required to decide,
but only the moral virtues of probity and courage. The time had been when
the clergy feared only to be unjust, and when the functions of judges might
safely be entrusted to them. The small iniquities of the consistory courts
had shaken the popular faith in the continued operation of such a fear; and
the experience of an Alexander VI., a Julius II., and a Leo X. had induced
a suspicion that even in the highest quarters justice had ceased to be much
considered. It remained for Clement VII. to disabuse men of their alarms,
or by confirming them to forfeit for ever the supremacy of his order in
England. Nor can it be said for him that the case was one in which it was
unusually difficult to be virtuous. Justice, wounded dignity, and the
interests of the See pointed alike to the same course. Queen Catherine's
relationship to the emperor could not have recommended her to the
tenderness of the pope, and the policy of assenting to an act which would
infallibly alienate Henry from Charles, and therefore attach him to the
Roman interests, did not require the eloquence of Wolsey to make it
intelligible. If, because he was in the emperor's power, he therefore
feared the personal consequences to himself, his cowardice of itself
disqualified him to sit as a judge.

It does not fall within my present purpose to detail the first stages of
the proceedings which followed. In substance they are well known to all
readers of English history, and may be understood without difficulty as
soon as we possess the clue to the conduct of Wolsey. I shall, however, in
a few pages briefly epitomise what passed.

At the outset of the negotiation, the pope, although he would take no
positive steps, was all, in words, which he was expected to be. Neither he
nor the cardinals refused to acknowledge the dangers