had been extracted, that it should be given
up, if in the course of the summer the pope "innovated anything" against
the King of England; and Henry now required, formally, that this engagement
should be observed. "A notorious and notable innovation" had been made, and
Francis must either deny his words, or adhere to them. It would be evident
to all the world, if the interview took place under the present
circumstances, that the alliance with England was no longer of the
importance with him which it had been; that his place in the struggle, when
the struggle came, would be found on the papal side.

The language of Henry throughout this paper was very fine and noble. He
reminded Francis that substantially the cause at issue was the cause of all
princes; the pope claiming a right to summon them to plead in the courts of
Rome, and refusing to admit their exemption as sovereign rulers. He had
been required not only to undo his marriage, and cancel the sentence of
divorce, but, as a condition of reconciliation with the Holy See, to undo
also, the Act of Appeals, and to restore the papal jurisdiction. He desired
it to be understood, with emphasis, that these points were all equally
sacred, and the repeal of the act was as little to be thought of as the
annulling the marriage. "The pope," he said, "did inforce us to excogitate
some new thing, whereby we might be healed and relieved of that continual
disease, to care for our cause at Rome, where such defence was taken from
us, as by the laws of God, nature, and man, is due unto us. Hereupon
depended the wealth of our realm; hereupon consisted the surety of our
succession, which by no other means could be well assured." "And
therefore," he went on, "you [the Duke] shall say to our good brother, that
the pope persisting in the ways he hath entered, ye must needs despair in
any meeting between the French king and the pope, to produce any such
effect as to cause us to meet in concord with the pope; but we shall be
even as far asunder as is between yea and nay. For to the pope's enterprise
to revoke or put back anything that is done here, either in marriage,
statute, sentence, or proclamation[613]--of which four members is knit and
conjoined the surety of our matter, nor any can be removed from the other,
lest thereby the whole edifice should be destroyed--we will and shall, by
all ways and means say nay, and declare our nay in such sort as the world
shall hear, and the pope feel it. W