e
answer that the imperialists at Rome had strengthened themselves in such
a manner, that they coacted the said Bishop of Rome to give sentence
contrary to his own mind, and the expectation of himself and of the
French king. He showed us also that the Lady Princess Dowager sent
lately, in the month of March past, letters to the Bishop of Rome, and
also to her proctors, whereby the Bishop of Rome was much moved for her
part. The imperials, before the sentence was given, promised, in the
emperor's behalf, that he would be the executor of the sentence."[260]

This is all which we are able to say of the immediate catastrophe which
decided the fate of England, and through England, of the world. The deep
impenetrable falsehood of the Roman ecclesiastics prevents us from
discovering with what intentions the game of the last few weeks or
months had been played; it is sufficient for Englishmen to remember,
that, whatever may have been the explanation of his conduct, the pope,
in the concluding passage of his connexion with this country, furnished
the most signal justification which was ever given for the revolt from
an abused authority. The supreme judge in Christendom had for six years
trifled with justice, out of fear of an earthly prince; he concluded
these years with uniting the extreme of folly with the extreme of
improbity, and pronounced a sentence, willingly or unwillingly, which he
had acknowledged to be unjust.

[Sidenote: Papal diplomacy.]

Charity may possibly acquit Clement of conscious duplicity. He was one
of those men who waited upon fortune, and waited always without success;
who gave his word as the interest of the moment suggested, trusting that
it might be convenient to observe it; and who was too long accustomed to
break his promises to look with any particular alarm on that
contingency. It is possible, also,--for of this Clement was
capable,--that he knew from the beginning the conclusion to which he
would at last be driven; that he had engaged himself with Charles to
decide in Catherine's favour as distinctly as he had engaged himself
with Francis to decide against her; and that all his tortuous scheming
was intended either to weary out the patience of the King of England, or
to entangle him in acknowledgments from which he would not be able to
extricate himself.

[Sidenote: Clement had formed a mistaken notion of the English temper,]

[Sidenote: But his true intentions are inscrutable.]

He was mis