lesiastical
administration of Europe. To defend the Papacy and to embarrass Charles
was the surest method of protecting himself and his order. The divorce was
an incident in the situation, but not the least important. Catherine
represented the Imperialist interest in England. To put her away was to
make the breach with her countrymen and kindred irreparable. He took upon
himself to assure the King that after the last outrage the Pope would
agree to anything that France and England demanded of him, and would trust
to his allies to bear him harmless. That the divorce was a thing
reasonable in itself to ask for, and certain to be conceded by any pope
who was free to act on his own judgment, was assumed as a matter of
course. Sir Gregory Casalis, the English agent at Rome, was instructed to
obtain access to Clement in St. Angelo, to convey to him the indignation
felt in England at his treatment, and then to insist on the illegality of
the King's relations with Catherine, on the King's own scruples of
conscience, and on the anxiety of his subjects that there should be a male
heir to the crown. The "urgent cause" such as was necessary to be produced
when exceptional actions were required of the popes was the imminence or
even certainty of civil war if no such heir was born.

Catherine meanwhile had again communicated with Mendoza. She had spoken to
her husband, and Henry, since further reticence was impossible, had told
her that they had been living in mortal sin, and that a separation was
necessary. A violent scene had followed, with natural tears and
reproaches.[11] The King endeavoured to console her, but it was not a
matter where consolation could avail. Wolsey advised him to deal with her
gently, till it was seen what the Pope and the King of France would do in
the matter. Wolsey himself was to go immediately to Paris to see Francis,
and consult with him on the measures necessary to be taken in consequence
of the Pope's imprisonment. It was possible that Clement, finding himself
helpless, might become a puppet in the Emperor's hands. Under such
circumstances he could not be trusted by other countries with the
spiritual authority attaching to his office, and schemes were being formed
for some interim arrangement by which France and England were to
constitute themselves into a separate patriarchate, with Wolsey at its
head as Archbishop of Rouen. Mendoza says that this proposal had been
actually made to Wolsey by the French