authority. For himself, instead of engaging to
confirm Wolsey's sentence, he said that no doctor could better resolve the
point at issue than the King himself. If he was resolved, said the Pope,
let him commit his cause to the Legate, marry again, follow up the trial,
and then let a public application be made for a Legate to be sent from the
Consistory. If the Queen was cited first, she would put in no answer, save
to protest against the place and judges. The Imperialists would demand a
prohibition, and then the King could not marry, or, if he did, the
offspring would be illegitimate. They would also demand a commission for
the cause to be heard at Rome, which the Pope would be unable to refuse.
But the King being actually married again, they could not ask for a
prohibition. They could only ask that the cause should be re-examined at
Rome, when the Pope would give sentence and a judgment could be passed
which would satisfy the whole world.[31] This was the Pope's own advice,
but he did not wish it to be known that it had come from himself. Casalis
might select the Legate to England after the first steps had been taken.
Campeggio he thought the fittest, being already an English bishop.[32] At
any rate, the Pope bade Casalis say he would do his best to satisfy the
King, though he knew that the Emperor would never forgive him.

It is not certain what would have followed had Henry acted on the Pope's
suggestion. The judgment which Clement promised might have been in his
favour. Clement evidently wished him to think that it would. But he might,
after all, have found himself required to take Catherine back. Either
alternative was possible. At any rate he did not mean, if he could help
it, to have recourse to violent methods. Charles himself, though he
intended to prevent, if he could, a legal decision against his aunt, had
hinted at the possibility and even desirableness of a private arrangement,
if Catherine would agree. Catherine, unfortunately, would agree to
nothing, but stood resolutely upon her rights, and Charles was forced to
stand by her. Henry was equally obstinate, and the Pope was between the
rock and the whirlpool.

The Pope had promised, however, and had promised with apparent sincerity.
The Papal states remaining occupied by the Imperial troops, Henry carried
out his own part of the engagement by joining France in a declaration of
war against the Emperor. Toison d'or and Clarencieulx appeared before
Charles at