d the Christian princes
of Europe were called on to show their fidelity to the Holy See, by
aiding in so godly a work.

In conclusion, as the king had commanded his clergy to preach against
the pope in their churches, so the pope commanded them to retaliate upon
the king, and with bell, book, and candle declare him cursed.

This was loud thunder; nor, when abetted by Irish massacres and English
treasons, was it altogether impotent. If Henry's conceptions of the
royal supremacy were something imperious, the papal supremacy was not
more modest in its self-assertion; and the language of Paul III. went
far to justify the rough measures by which his menaces were parried. If
any misgiving had remained in the king's mind on the legitimacy of the
course which he had pursued, the last trace of it must have been
obliterated by the perusal of this preposterous bombast.

[Sidenote: Peril of Henry's position.]

For the moment, as I said, the bull was suspended through the
interference of Francis. But Francis remained in communion with the See
of Rome: Francis was at that moment labouring to persuade the Lutheran
states in Germany to return to communion with it: and Henry knew, that,
although in their hearts the European powers might estimate the pope's
pretences at their true value, yet the bull of excommunication might
furnish a convenient and dangerous pretext against him in the event of a
Catholic combination. His position was full of peril; and in spite of
himself, he was driven once more to seek for an alliance among the
foreign Protestants, before the French intrigues should finally
anticipate him.

[Sidenote: Intrigues of the French in Germany.]

That he really might be too late appeared an immediate likelihood. The
quarrel between the Lutherans and the followers of Zwingli, the
Anabaptist anarchy and the increasing confusion throughout the
Protestant states, had so weighed on Luther's spirit that he was looking
for the end of all things and the coming of Christ; and although Luther
himself never quailed, too many "murmurers in the wilderness" were
looking wistfully back into Egypt. The French king, availing himself
skilfully of the turning tide, had sent the Bishop of Paris to the
courts of Saxony and Bavaria, in the beginning of August, to feel his
way towards a reconciliation; and his efforts had been attended with
remarkable success.

[Sidenote: Probability of a reconciliation of the Lutherans with the See
of Rom