If he could not obtain justice from the Pope, he would be
compelled to seek it elsewhere.[33]

The language of these instructions shows that the King and Wolsey
understood the Proteus that they were dealing with, and the necessity of
binding his hands if he was not to slip from them. It was not now the
fountain of justice, the august head of Christendom, that they were
addressing, but a shifty old man, clad by circumstances with the robe of
authority, but whose will was the will of the power which happened to be
strongest in Italy. It was not tolerable that the Emperor should dictate
on a question which touched the vital interests of an independent kingdom.

Spanish diplomatists had afterwards to excuse and explain away Clement's
concessions on the ground that they were signed when he was angry at his
imprisonment, had been extorted by threats, and were therefore of no
validity. He struggled hard to avoid committing himself. The unwelcome
documents were recast into various forms. The dispensation was not signed
after all, but in the place of it other briefs were signed of even graver
importance. The Pope yielded to the demand to send a second Legate to try
the cause with Wolsey in England, where it was assumed as a matter of
course that judgment would be given for the King. The Legate chosen was
Campeggio, who was himself, as was said, an English bishop. The Pope also
did express in writing his own opinion on the cause as favourable to the
King's plea. What passed at Orvieto was thus afterwards compendiously
related by Henry in a published statement of his case.

"On his first scruple the King sent to the Bishop of Rome, as Christ's
Vicar, who had the keys of knowledge, to dissolve his doubts. The said
Bishop refused to take any knowledge of it and desired the King to apply
for a commission to be sent into the realm, authorised to determine the
cause, thus pretending that it might no wise be entreated at Rome, but
only within the King's own realm. He delegated his whole powers to
Campeggio and Wolsey, giving them also a special commission in form of a
decretal, wherein he declared the King's marriage null and empowered him
to marry again. In the open commission also he gave them full authority to
give sentence for the King. Secretly he gave them instructions to burn the
commission decretal and not proceed upon it; (but) at the time of sending
the commission he also sent the King a brief, written in his own hand,
admit