ope's authority so long as he remained in captivity, and the Cardinal
replied that, had the overture not been made by her, it would have
been started by himself and by Henry.[565] It was rumoured in Spain
that Wolsey "had gone into France to separate the Church of England
and of France from the Roman, not merely during the captivity of the
Pope and to effect his liberation, but for a perpetual division,"[566]
and that Francis was offering Wolsey the patriarchate of the two
schismatic churches. To win over the Cardinal to the interest of
Spain, it was even suggested that Charles should depose Clement and
offer the Papacy to Wolsey.[567] The project of a schism was not found
feasible; the cardinals at Rome were too numerous, and Wolsey only
succeeded in gaining four, three French and one Italian, to join him
in signing a protest repudiating Clement's authority so long as (p. 202)
he remained in the Emperor's power. It was necessary to fall back
after all on the Pope for assent to Henry's divorce, and the news that
Charles had already got wind of the proceedings against Catherine made
it advisable that no time should be lost. The Emperor, indeed, had
long been aware of Henry's intentions; every care had been taken to
prevent communication between Catherine and her nephew, and a plot had
been laid to kidnap a messenger she was sending in August to convey
her appeal for protection. All was in vain, for the very day after
Wolsey's court had opened in May, Mendoza wrote to Charles that Wolsey
"as the finishing stroke to all his iniquities, had been scheming to
bring about the Queen's divorce"; and on the 29th of July, some days
before Wolsey had any suspicion that a hint was abroad, Charles
informed Mendoza that he had despatched Cardinal Quignon to Rome, to
act on the Queen's behalf and to persuade Clement to revoke Wolsey's
legatine powers.[568]

[Footnote 565: _Ibid._, iv., 3247, 3263.]

[Footnote 566: _Ibid._, iv., 3291.]

[Footnote 567: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 273.]

[Footnote 568: _Sp. Cal._, iii., 193, 276, 300; _L.
and P._, iv., 3312.]

In ignorance of all this, Wolsey urged Henry to send Ghinucci, the
Bishop of Worcester, and others to Rome with certain demands, among
which was a request for Clement's assent to the abortive proposal for
a council in France.[569] But now a divergence became apparent between
the policy of Wo