g so standing,
now to speak of a general council! Oh, good Lord! but well! his
commission and all his other writings cannot be but welcome unto me;'
which words methought he spake willing to hide his choler, and make me
believe that he was nothing angry with their doings, when in very deed I
perceived, by many arguments, that it was otherwise. And one among
others was taken here for infallible with them that knoweth the pope's
conditions, that he was continually folding up and unwinding of his
handkerchief, which he never doth but when he is tickled to the very
heart with great choler."

At length the appeal was read through; and at the close of it Francis
entered, and talked to the pope for some time, but in so low a voice
that Bonner could not hear what was passing. When he had gone, his
Holiness said that he would deliberate upon the appeal with the
consistory, and after hearing their judgments would return his answer.

[Sidenote: The appeal is rejected.]

Three days passed, and then the English agent was informed that he might
again present himself. The pope had recovered his calmness. When he had
time to collect himself, Clement could speak well and with dignity; and
if we could forget that his conduct was substantially unjust, and that
in his conscience he knew it to be unjust, he would almost persuade us
to believe him honest. "He said," wrote Bonner, "that his mind towards
your Highness always had been to minister justice, and to do pleasure to
you; albeit it hath not been so taken: and he never unjustly grieved
your Grace that he knoweth, nor intendeth hereafter to do. As concerning
the appeal, he said that, forasmuch as there was a constitution of Pope
Pius, his predecessor, that did condemn and reprove all such appeals, he
did therefore reject your Grace's appeal as frivolous, forbidden, and
unlawful." As touching the council, he said generally, that he would do
his best that it should meet; but it was to be understood that the
calling a general council belonged to him, and not to the King of
England.

The audience ended, and Bonner left the pope convinced that he intended,
on his return to Rome, to execute the censures and continue the process
without delay. That the sentence which he would pronounce would be
against the king appeared equally certain.

[Sidenote: Yet on Bonner's departure Clement assures Francis that the
King of England's cause is just,]

[Sidenote: And if he will only acknowledge the