apse
between the first examination and the final close at Tyburn. The case
against More and Fisher was no less clear than against the monks; yet
five weeks elapsed and the government still hesitated. Perhaps they were
influenced by the high position of the greater offenders,--perhaps there
was some fear of the world's opinion, which, though it might be
indifferent to the sacrifice of a few obscure ecclesiastics, yet would
surely not pass over lightly the execution of men who stood out with so
marked preeminence. The council board was unevenly composed. Cromwell,
who divides with the king the responsibility of these prosecutions, had
succeeded, not to the authority only of Wolsey, but to the hatred with
which the ignoble plebeian was regarded by the patricians who were
compelled to stoop before him. Lord Exeter was already looking with a
cold eye on the revolution; and Norfolk and Suffolk, though zealous as
the king himself for the independence of England, yet had all the
instincts of aristocratic conservatism. Even Cromwell may have desired
the triumph of winning over converts so distinguished, or may have
shrunk from the odium which their deaths would bring upon him. Whatever
was the cause of the delay, the privy council, who had been contented
with a single examination of Haughton and his companions, struggled with
their present difficulty week after week; and it is possible that,
except from an extraneous impulse, some mode of escape might have been
discovered. But as the sentence of Clement sealed the fate of the Nun of
Kent, so the unwisdom of his successor bore similarly fatal fruits.

[Sidenote: The pope names Fisher a cardinal.]

Paul III. had throughout the spring flattered Henry with expressions of
sympathy, and had held out hopes of an approaching change of policy. He
chose the present unfortunate juncture to expose the vanity of these
professions; and as an intimation of the course which he intended to
follow, he named the Bishop of Rochester, the one bishop who remained
attached to Catherine's cause, a cardinal. Henry had appealed to a
council, which the pope had promised to call; and Fisher, of all
Englishmen, was chosen as the person whom the pope desired to represent
the nation on its assembly. Even the very conclave at Rome were taken by
surprise, and expressed themselves in no measured terms at the impolicy
of this most foolish action. Cassalis, aware of the effect which the
news would produce in Engl