a natural consequence of the conference of
Calais, provided that the pope intended to proceed openly and uprightly;
and if it had been sent upon the spot, Henry could have complained of
nothing worse than of an honourable opposition to his wishes. But the
mystery was not yet exhausted. The postscript was not issued, it was not
spoken of; it was carried secretly to Bologna, and it bears at its foot a
further date of the 23rd of December, the very time, that is to say, at
which the pope was representing himself to Bennet as occupied only in
devising the best means of satisfying Henry, and to Sir Gregory Cassalis,
as so convinced of the justice of the English demands, that he had ventured
in defence of them to the edge of rupture with the emperor.

It might be urged that he was sincere both in his brief and in his
conversation; that he believed that a verdict ought to be given, and would
at last be given, against the original marriage, and that therefore he was
the more anxious to prevent unnecessary scandal. Yet a menace of
excommunication couched in so haughty a tone, could have been honestly
reconciled with his other conduct, only by his following a course with
respect to it which he did not follow--by informing the ambassadors openly
of what he had done, and transmitting his letter through their hands to
Henry himself. This he might have done; and though the issue of such a
document at such a time would have been open to question, it might
nevertheless have been defended. His Holiness, however, did nothing of the
kind. No hint was let fall of the existence of any minatory brief; he
sustained his pretence of good will, till there was no longer any occasion
for him to counterfeit; and two months later it suddenly appeared on the
doors of the churches in Flanders.

Henry at first believed it to be forgery, One forged brief had already been
produced by the imperialists in the course of their transactions, and he
imagined that this was another; even his past experience of Clement had not
prepared him for this last venture of effrontery; he wrote to Bennet,
enclosing a copy, and requiring him to ascertain if it were really
genuine.[409]

The pope could not deny his hand, though the exposure, and the strange
irregular character of the brief itself troubled him, and Bonner, who was
again at the papal court, said that "he was in manner ashamed, and in great
perplexity what he might do therein."[410]

His conduct will be vari