ed for the occasion.
The Pope having sent a commission to England, the King considered that he
had a right to the production of documents essential to the case. He
required Catherine to write to Charles to ask for it. Catherine did as he
desired, and the messenger who carried her letter to the Spanish Court was
sworn to carry no private or separate missive from her. Mendoza dared not
write by the same hand himself, lest his despatches should be examined. He
made the messenger, therefore, learn a few words by heart, telling the
Emperor that the Queen's letter was not to be attended to. "We thought,"
he said, "that the man's oath was thus saved."[52] Thus time drifted on.
The new year came, and no progress had been made, though Campeggio had
been three months in England. The Pope, more helpless than dishonest,
continued to assure the King that he would do all that by law could be
required of him, and as much as he could do _ex plenitudine potestatis_.
No peril should prevent him. "If the King thought his resigning the Papacy
would conduce to his purpose, he could be content, for the love he bore
his Highness, rather than fail to do the same."

If the Pope was so well disposed, the King could not see where the
difficulty lay. The Queen had refused his entreaty that she should enter
religion. Why should not the Pope, then, allow the decretal to be put in
execution? But Cardinal Salviati informed Casalis that a sentence given
in virtue of the decretal would have no effect, but would only cause the
Pope's deposition.[53] Visibly and unpleasantly it became now apparent to
Henry to what issues the struggle was tending. He had not expected it.
Wolsey had told him that the Pope would yield; and the Pope had promised
what was asked; but his promises were turning to vapour. Wolsey had said
that the Emperor could not afford to quarrel with him. The King found that
war with the Emperor in earnest was likely enough unless he himself drew
back, and draw back he would not. The poor Pope was as anxious as Henry.
He had spoken of resigning. He was near being spared the trouble. Harassed
beyond his strength, he fell ill, and was expected to die; and before
Wolsey there was now apparently the strange alternative either of utter
disgrace or of himself ascending the chair of St. Peter as Clement's
successor. His election, perhaps, was really among the chances of the
situation. The Cardinals had not forgiven the sack of Rome. A French or
Englis