were one--and as
walls, covering, and foundation make a house, so they knit together,
establish, and make one matter--ye be well assured, and be so
ascertained from us, that in no wise we will relent, but will, as we
have before written, withstand the same. Whereof ye may say that ye have
thought good to advertise him, to the intent he make no farther promise
to the pope therein than may be performed."

[Sidenote: And the pope must be made to understand his folly.]

The ambassadors were the more emphatically to insist on the king's
resolution, lest Francis, in his desire for conciliation, might hold
out hopes to the pope which could not be realized. They were to say,
however, that the King of England still trusted that the interview would
not take place. The see of Rome was asserting a jurisdiction which, if
conceded, would encourage an unlimited usurpation. If princes might be
cited to the papal courts in a cause of matrimony, they might be cited
equally in other causes at the pope's pleasure; and the free kingdoms of
Europe would be converted into dependent provinces of the see of Rome.
It concerned alike the interest and the honour of all sovereigns to
resist encroachments which pointed to such an issue; and, therefore,
Henry said he hoped that his good brother would use the pope as he had
deserved, "doing him to understand his folly, and [that] unless he had
first made amends, he could not find in his heart to have further amity
with him."

[Sidenote: If the meeting is to go on, and the ambassadors cannot induce
Francis to "break" it, they are to return home.]

If notwithstanding, the instructions concluded, "all these persuasions
cannot have place to let the said meeting, and the French king shall say
it is expedient for him to have in his hands the duchess,[166] under
pretence of marriage for his son, which he cannot obtain but by this
means, ye shall say that ye remember ye heard him say once he would
never conclude that marriage but to do us good, which is now infaisible;
and now in the voice of the world shall do us both more hurt in the
diminution of the reputation of our amity than it should do otherwise
profit. Nevertheless, [if] ye cannot let his precise determination, [ye]
can but lament and bewail your own chance to depart home in this sort;
and that yet of the two inconvenients, it is to you more tolerable to
return to us nothing done, than to be present at the interview and to be
compelled to look