he said, was driven to desperation, the miserable divorce suit
would be the ruin of the world; Francis would and must stand by him if the
Pope proceeded to excommunication. His impatience with his marriage might
be unreasonable, but was no adequate ground for the convulsion of Catholic
Christendom. Clement was at heart of the same opinion. The course which he
wished to follow was to delay indefinitely. A formal suspension would not
be needed. They had only to go on slowly. The King would then most likely
marry, and the cause would drop. Andrea de Burgo, Ferdinand's ambassador,
said that the Emperor was strong enough to settle the matter by himself.
"Not so strong as you think," Clement observed. "Between the Turks and the
Lutherans the Emperor may have trouble enough of his own."[152]

The Pope's unwillingness was well understood in England. He made another
faint effort to save Catherine; he ordered the Nuncio to announce to Henry
that the brief must be obeyed, or "justice would have its course."
Believing that the message would be resented, the Nuncio hesitated to
deliver it, but, encouraged by Chapuys, at last demanded audience and
informed Henry in the Pope's name what he was to expect if he persisted.
Henry shortly answered that the Pope was losing his time. He already knew
what the Nuncio had come to tell him, but, once for all, he would never
accept the Pope as his judge in an affair concerning himself and the
English nation. "The Pope may excommunicate me," he said. "I care not a
fig for his excommunication. Let him do as he wills at Rome. I will do
here as I will.... I take the Pope to be a worthy man on the whole, but
ever since the last war he has been so afraid of the Emperor that he dares
not act against his wishes."[153]

The most obvious resource was to adopt the suggestion already made that
the case should be transferred to Cambray, or to some other spot not open
to objection, where it could be heard with impartiality. Clement himself
was weary of the struggle, and eager to escape from it by any reasonable
means. If Catherine would agree, Charles was unlikely to hesitate; but,
though weary and worn out with disappointments, she was a resolute woman,
and as long as she persisted the Emperor was determined not to desert her.
With small hope of success, but as an experiment which it was thought
desirable to try, a deputation of Peers and Bishops were commissioned to
see Catherine, to ask her to withdraw her d