e position
which England had assumed on its revolt from its old allegiance.

[Sidenote: The reply of the pope.]

There were no more false efforts at conciliation, and open war
thenceforth appeared to be the only possible relation between the papacy
and Henry VIII. Paul III. replied, or designed to reply, with his
far-famed bull of interdict and deposition, which, though reserved at
the moment in deference to Francis of France, and not issued till three
years later, was composed in the first burst of his displeasure.[472]
The substance of his voluminous anathemas may be thus briefly
epitomized.

[Sidenote: The bull of interdict and deposition.]

The pope, quoting and applying to himself the words of Jeremiah,
"Behold, I have set thee over nations and kingdoms, that thou mayest
root out and destroy, and that thou mayest plant and build again,"
addressed Henry as a disobedient vassal. Already lying under the
censures of the church, he had gone on to heap crime on crime; and
therefore, a specific number of days being allowed him to repent and
make his submission, at the expiration of this period of respite the
following sentence was to take effect.

The king, with all who abetted him in his crimes, was pronounced
accursed--cut off from the body of Christ, to perish. When he died, his
body should lie without burial; his soul, blasted with anathema, should
be cast into hell for ever. The lands of his subjects who remained
faithful to him were laid under an interdict: their children were
disinherited, their marriages illegal, their wills invalid; only by one
condition could they escape their fate--by instant rebellion against the
apostate prince. All officers of the crown were absolved from their
oaths; all subjects, secular or ecclesiastic, from their allegiance.
The entire nation, under penalty of excommunication, was commanded no
longer to acknowledge Henry as their sovereign.[473] No true son of the
church should hold intercourse with him or his adherents. They must
neither trade with them, speak with them, nor give them food. The
clergy, leaving behind a few of their number to baptize the new-born
infants, were to withdraw from the accursed land, and return no more
till it had submitted. If the king, trusting to force, persevered in his
iniquity, the lords and commons of England, dukes, marquises, earls, and
all other persons, were required, under the same penalty of
excommunication, to expel him from the throne; an