him "sore altered." The news of "my Lord of
Canterbury's proceedings" had arrived the preceding night; and "his
Holiness said that [such] doings were too sore for him to stand still at
and do nothing."[607] It was "against his duty towards God and the world to
tolerate them." The imperialist cardinals, impatient before, clamoured that
the evil had been caused by the dilatory timidity with which the case had
been handled from the first.[608] The consistory sate day after day with
closed doors;[609] and even such members of it as had before inclined to
the English side, joined in the common indignation. "Some extreme process"
was instantly looked for, and the English agents, in their daily interviews
with the pope, were forced to listen to language which it was hard to bear
with equanimity. Bennet's well-bred courtesy carried him successfully
through the difficulty; his companion Bonner was not so fortunate. Bonner's
tongue was insolent, and under bad control. He replied to menace by
impertinence; and on one occasion was so exasperating, that Clement
threatened to burn him alive, or boil him in a caldron of lead.[610] When
fairly roused, the old man was dangerous; and the future Bishop of London
wrote to England in extremity of alarm. His letter has not been found, but
the character of it may be perceived from the reassuring reply of the king.
The agents, Henry said, were not to allow themselves to be frightened; they
were to go on calmly, with their accustomed diligence and dexterity,
disputing the ground from point to point, and trust to him. Their cause was
good, and, with God's help, he would be able to defend them from the malice
of their adversaries.[611]

Fortunately for Bonner, the pope's passion was of brief duration, and the
experiment whether Henry's arm could reach to the dungeons of the Vatican
remained untried. The more moderate of the cardinals, also, something
assuaged the storm; and angry as they all were, the majority still saw the
necessity of prudence. In the heat of the irritation, final sentence was to
have been pronounced upon the entire cause, backed by interdict,
excommunication, and the full volume of the papal thunders. At the close of
a month's deliberation they resolved to reserve judgement on the original
question, and to confine themselves for the present to revenging the insult
to the pope by "my Lord of Canterbury." Both the king and the archbishop
had disobeyed a formal inhibition. On the 1