atically precluded from producing it as a
fresh injury. Both he and the Council were evidently unwilling to act. The
Pope knew their reluctance, and did not mean, if he could help it, to
flourish his spiritual weapons without a sword to support them.

The King wrote to inform Charles of his marriage. "In the face of the
Scotch pretensions to the succession," he said, "other heirs of his body
were required for the security of the Crown. The thing was done, and the
Pope must make the best of it." This was precisely what the Pope was
inclined to do. Cifuentes thought that, though he seemed troubled, "he was
really pleased."[223] "He said positively that, if he was to declare the
King of England deprived of his crown, the Emperor must bind himself to
see the sentence executed."[224] Charles had no intention of binding
himself, nor would his Cabinet advise him to bind himself. The time was
passed when Most Catholic Princes could put armies in motion to execute
the decrees of the Bishop of Rome. The theory might linger, but the facts
were changed. Philip II. tried the experiment half a century later, but it
did not answer to him. A fresh order of things had risen in Europe, and
passionate Catholics could not understand it. Dr. Ortiz shrieked that "the
King, by his marriage, was guilty of heresy and schism;" the Emperor ought
to use the opportunity, without waiting for further declarations from the
Pope, and unsheath the sword which God had placed in his hands.[225]
English Peers and Prelates, impatient of the rising strength of the
Commons and of the growth of Lutheranism, besieged Chapuys with entreaties
for an Imperial force to be landed. They told him that Richard III. was
not so hated by the people as Henry; but that, without help from abroad,
they dared not declare themselves.[226] Why could they not dare? The King
had no janissaries about his throne. Why could they not stand up in the
House of Lords and refuse to sanction the measures which they disapproved?
Why, except that they were _not_ the people. Numbers might still be on
their side, but the daring, the intellect, the fighting-strength of
England was against them, and the fresh air of dawning freedom chilled
their blood. The modern creed is that majorities have a right to rule. If,
out of every hundred men, four-fifths will vote on one side, but will not
fight without help from the sword of the stranger; and the remaining fifth
will both vote and fight--fight domest