x weeks
to consider whether they would acknowledge the Statute of Supremacy. More
was respected by every one, except the Lutherans, whom he confessed that
he hated; Fisher was regarded as a saint by the Catholic part of England;
and the King, who was dependent after all on the support of his subjects
and could not wish to shock or alienate them, would probably have pressed
them no further, unless challenged by some fresh provocation. Fisher had
waded deep into treason, but, if the King knew it, there was no evidence
which could be produced. Before the six weeks were expired the Court and
the world were astonished to hear that Paul had created the Bishop of
Rochester a cardinal, and that the hat was already on the way. Casalis,
who foresaw the consequences, had protested against the appointment, both
to the Pope and the Consistory. Paul pretended to be frightened. He begged
Casalis to excuse him to the King. He professed, what it was impossible to
believe, that he had intended to pay England a compliment. A general
Council was to meet. He wished England to be represented there by a
Prelate whom he understood to be distinguished for learning and sanctity.
The Roman Pontiffs have had a chequered reputation, but the weakest of
them has never been suspected of a want of worldly acuteness. The
condition of England was as well understood at Rome as it was understood
by Chapuys, and, with Dr. Ortiz at his ear, Paul must have been acquainted
with the disposition of every peer and prelate in the realm. Fisher's name
had been familiar through the seven years' controversy as of the one
English Bishop who had been constant in resistance to every step of
Henry's policy. Paul, who had just absolved Silken Thomas for the
Archbishop of Dublin's murder, had little to learn about the conspiracy,
or about Fisher's share in it. The excuse was an insolence more affronting
than the act itself. It was impossible for the King to acknowledge himself
defied and defeated. He said briefly that he would send Fisher's head to
Rome, for the hat to be fitted on it. Sir Thomas More, as Fisher's dearest
friend, connected with him in opposition to the Reformation and sharing
his imprisonment for the same actions, was involved along with him in the
fatal effects of the Pope's cunning or the Pope's idiotcy. The six weeks
ran out. The Bishop and the ex-Chancellor were called again before the
Council, refused to acknowledge the supremacy, and were committed for